Ai Weiwei: Making Sense

Calming yet thought-provoking exhibition at the Design Museum of Design by Ai Weiwei which focuses on his work looking at design and what it reveals about our changing values.

The whole gallery space was opened up and was dominated by five ‘fields’ of repetitive objects laid out on the floor from Stone Age tools at one end to Lego at the other. I love this sort of approach and found them very beautiful particularly the field of teapot spouts but as you read more you found out they were deeper than at first view. For example the Lego had been sent to him by members of the public when the company stopped supplying him after he used it for portraits of political prisoners.

Around the walls were then pieces either made from ordinary objects or imitating them. One wall had two snakes, one made of children’s rucksacks to reference the children killed in the Sichuan earthquake and the other of life vests too represent the European migrant crisis. There were also pieces like three coat hangers in wood, stainless steel and crystal as a reminder of one of the few objects he had as a prisoner and of the beauty in the everyday.

There were also some videos running exploring the growth of modern Beijing slowly driving through or looking at particular parts. They were interesting as a background but as one was 150 hours long, I didn’t engage for long!

Closed 30 July 2023


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