I headed enthusiastically to the Royal Academy to see the large exhibition by the famous Ai Weiwei. I left disappointed, feeling that the art doesn’t warrant the praise heaped on the artist. Ai Weiwei was made an Honorary Royal Academician in 2011, but it was in response to his arrest by the Chinese authorities, rather than the merit of his work. The show increases the sense that it is his persecution that has brought him fame and fortune rather than his art.
Get yourself an Ai Weiwei pop-up doll at the Royal Academy
Much of the work certainly has the scale for the grand exhibition rooms at the Royal Academy. The exhibition is a survey rather than a retrospective and Weiwei has chosen works that he thinks best represent his practice over the years. Rooms are filled with hundreds of metal bars, big blank-sided metal boxes, large sculptures made from mutant furniture. Smaller pieces are shown in display cabinets, whilst Weiwei has also designed wallpapers which cover the walls of two of the rooms.
Even given the popularity of the show and the huge numbers of visitors there is a reverential silence in most of the rooms. People take Ai Weiwei very seriously. He has suffered for his art, and not just in a tortured-soul-in-a-garret way. The benign-looking, blank-sided metal boxes contain half-scale recreations of the prison cell in which he was incarcerated for 81 days. You can only see in through small peep holes on the top and on the sides. These are only suitable for one person at a time to look in, a system that does not work for such a busy exhibition. Few people are able to see them all and all the piece seems to aim at is building the Weiwei mythology.
Potentially most interesting is his work as an artist activist. A room is devoted to his work surrounding the collapse of a school and the death of hundreds of people. The cause of the disaster was an earthquake, but contributory factors include substandard building techniques and corruption. Photographs show the destruction. Names around the room show the human costs. And 90,000 tonnes of metal building rods, taken from the disaster area, straightened by hand and laid neatly in the gallery show…what? Mainly the tedious, mind-numbing work that people have to undertake. This might have ended up in gallery, but videos show the inane hammering that the artist inflicted on other people. It reflects the similarly inane, painful work inflicted on prisoners in communist work camps, but suggests the conclusion that capitalism isn’t much better.
Contemplating Straight (2008-2012)
Other work depends on wordplay – for example in Chinese river crab sounds like harmonious, a word much used in communist propaganda. Weiwei has therefore created a lot of river crabs, and also hosted dinners where everyone eats, you guessed what.
The urge to shock is clear in the vibrant painting of neolithic pots and the destruction of a Han Dynasty urn. This sounds highly expensive and super-rare but actually you can pick one up for less than $1000. Still a lot to chuck at the floor, until you make the calculation that the photograph of you chucking it at the floor will be worth a lot more. The merchandise available adds to a feeling that capitalism itself is being mocked. These people will buy anything! Anything!
Lance Armstrong’s cancer and charity work helped prevent his cycling achievements being examined properly. In a similar manner Ai Weiwei’s censorship and persecution in China stops people from looking at the work and saying is this actually worthy of a large-scale show at the RA?
Until 13th December
The great thing about art is that it is only ever in the eye of the beholder. I’m still interested in going to have a gawp.
You’re right Paul. Leave a note telling us what you think.
I’ve come to this page via google request “ai weiwei disappointing” 😉
Just saw the show today and I want to tell you that I share your feelings. Knowing everything I know about the man, I have not lost respect for him and his work. However, I should say that I find his work a) too minimal b) too China-specific.
By a) here I mean that most of his work look like he’s trying to tell something, but all I hear is just a couple of words in a language that I don’t understand. Too little to get any meaning or emotional contents. Marble grass and a pushchair? I really had no idea what to think or feel. Of course, I later turn to audio-guide. The work is starting to kind of make sense. But sorry, I just did not get _any_ of that from the work itself.
And by b) of course I mean literally that.
P.S. I thank the RA for providing the audio guide without which I would probably be completely clueless about what is going on.