Cathy's Art Diary

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 ha...

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  

Disappointing installation at the Imperial War Museum by Ai Weiwei. I’d looked forward to seeing this installation as I like Ai Weiwei’s work and finding out what new things he has to say. The work consisted of a print across the whole of the ground floor of real historic and contemporary bomb at life size with details of their dimensions and power. I liked the way it extended up the staircase opposite the entrance. However I am afraid it lost it’s power with the confusion of the exhibits hanging above it and it was all too easy to walk across it without looking down and taking in the awesome information it was trying to impart. The write up says that it is “Exploring international migration, conflict as a root cause of human flow, and the relationship between the individual, society and the state” but I’m afraid that was lost in me. It might work better in a different space but I’m afraid here it looked a bit decorative rather than powerful. I guess though that there is somethi...

Fascinating  online discussio n as part of the Charleston Festival at Home between the artist Ai Weiwei and Tim Marlow, CEO of the Design Museum.   As a regular all event ticket holder at the Charleston Festival, which was obviously cancelled this year, I have enjoyed the alternative online events they have run every evening throughout the festival. All the events were excellent but the others were more literary so they haven’t made it into this blog, however the last event was a firmly artistic one so I feel I can add it!   The discussion, which is available on Youtube, suffered a bit from Zoom sound issues, but was an interesting interview of this contemporary artist. They began by talking about the role of place in his art as he bases in Cambridge and Berlin leading on to how lockdown effects this sense of place and how it has affected his creativity. He said that his rather nomadic life keeps him alert even though it is uncomfortable and it fuels his creative ideas...

Fantastic exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the work of contemporary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. From the first room of this show I was completely engaged by it and I hadn’t expected to be. I’d seen a few Ai WeiWei pieces before but not really understood them. This show, particularly the audio tour, really explained what the works mean, how they were made and the inspiration for them. In that first room was a wonderful low wooden structure called “Bed” which resembled a Chinese bed with ridges across it but the edges made the contours of the landscape of China. A huge piece of work but with a simple idea. I loved his reuse of items from the past, old furniture, wood salvaged from temples and even the rubble from his own studio complex commissioned by a local council but ordered to be demolished by the government. I was a bit unsure about the repainting and breaking of ancient vases. I worry when an artist destroys an old work to make a new one! I get the meaning of ...

Installation in the courtyard of Somerset House of sculptures by Ai Weiwei. It consisted of a circle of 12 bronze animal heads re-creationing the traditional Chinese zodiac sculptures which once adorned the fountain of an imperial retreat in Beijing. The pieces were beautifully detailed and looked great in the courtyard. However I went on a very rainy day and it was too wet to stop and look at them properly! Reviews Guardian Independent