Ai Weiwei : La Commedia Umana / Memento mori

Stunning exhibition at San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice of new work by Ai Weiwei.

The centrepiece was an enormous installation of a chandelier like piece made up of bones and body parts in black glass. It looked magnificent in the space. I loved the vistas you got through it and around it. Weiwei has evidently been working with glass workers in Murano for three years to create this piece and other smaller works in the show.

In other parts of the abbey there were new pictures in Lego by Weiwei. I’d not realised he’d branched out into this new medium. They look rather pop art but are very effective. There were the amazing black and white ones based on photos of him breaking pots but by favourite was a Lego  version of Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”.

Closes 27 November 2022


 

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