Ai Weiwei is Making Sense at the Design Museum

Ai Weiwei’s first design exhibition celebrates “how life goes on” after the pandemic

Hundreds of thousands of cannonballs, donated Lego bricks and a marble toilet roll feature in Making Sense, the first design-focussed exhibition by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei at London’s Design Museum.

Showing a range of new and historical works spread across a single gallery, Ai Weiwei: Making Sense opens at the Design Museum recently and marks the artist’s first design-focussed exhibition to date.

Still Life is an installation of thousands of found objects from the Stone Age
Still Life is an installation of thousands of found objects from the Stone Age. Courtesy of dezeen.com

“I had to do something after the pandemic to celebrate how life goes on,” explained Ai, who is globally recognised for using art as a tool for activism.

Central to the space is five “field works” made from rectilinear arrangements of found objects that the artist has been collecting since the 1990s.

Ai Weiwei also created a
Ai Weiwei also created a “field work” from porcelain cannonballs. Courtesy of dezeen.com

Still Life is a group of several thousand Stone Age axe heads, knives, spinning wheels and chisels sourced from flea markets and laid side-by-side. The installation intends to humble visitors and serve as a reminder that design was originally based on survival.

Another untitled work created last year brings together over 200,000 Xing ware porcelain cannonballs made during China’s Song dynasty – seemingly delicate objects that were once war weapons.

Left Right Studio Material collects Ai's sculptures that were destroyed by the Chinese government.
Left Right Studio Material collects Ai’s sculptures that were destroyed by the Chinese government. Courtesy of dezeen.com

“It’s a matter of intelligence,” Ai told Dezeen, discussing his long history of collecting artefacts.

“It is to keep the memory and to try and build yourself with what has happened to other human beings in very dramatically different times through history.”

Other pieces feature thousands of Lego bricks. Courtesy of dezeen.com
Other pieces feature thousands of Lego bricks. Courtesy of dezeen.com

Spouts is an installation of thousands of ancient porcelain teapot spouts, while Left Right Studio Material collects fragments of Ai’s sculptures that were destroyed by the Chinese state when it demolished the artist’s Beijing studio without warning in 2018.

“The remains are a form of evidence of the repression that Ai has suffered at the hands of the Chinese government, as well as a testament to his ability to turn destruction into art,” said the Design Museum.

Among the found objects is a Han dynasty urn painted with a Coca Cola logo. Photo is courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio
Among the found objects is a Han dynasty urn painted with a Coca Cola logo. Photo is courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio

The fifth “field work” features piles of Lego bricks that were donated by members of the public after the toy manufacturer stopped supplying bricks to Ai because he used the toys to create portraits of political prisoners.

Called Lego Incident, the work is presented alongside a vast recreation of French impressionist Claude Monet’s famed Water Lillies series that is also made entirely out of Lego, as well as a dramatic wooden sculpture made of columns sourced from a Qing dynasty temple and tables from the same period.

In 2020, the artist created a toilet roll from marble in response to the pandemic. Photo is courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio
In 2020, the artist created a toilet roll from marble in response to the pandemic. Photo is courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio

Among the other pieces in the exhibition, the artist presented a pair of large sculptures made from life jackets and children’s school bags respectively.

The objects were arranged in two snake-shaped formations dedicated to the victims of China’s 2009 Sichuan earthquake and the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe.

Also on display are two life-size toilet rolls made from marble and glass, which were designed in 2020 in response to our dependency on everyday objects at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Photography also features in the exhibition, including the artist's Study of Perspective series
Photography also features in the exhibition, including the artist’s Study of Perspective series. Courtesy of dezeen.com

“They work as one,” said Ai, who said he does not have a favourite piece in the exhibition – rather, he feels the projects complement each other.

“All my works work as one – the bad ones, the so-called ‘good’ ones, the random ones or the ones being neglected.”

“It’s just like, can you choose one part of your body as the most important one?”

Various photography was also shown, including colourful new editions of the artist’s Study of Perspective series – images of the artist pointing his middle finger at recognisable landmarks including Berlin’s Reichstag building and New York’s Trump Tower.

Prints displaying the National Stadium, widely known as the Bird’s Nest, being constructed prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics were also mounted to the wall.

While the artist helped to conceive the stadium in collaboration with architecture studio Herzog & de Meuron, he later distanced himself from the project in protest against the Chinese government.

“I never really have a particular hope,” said Ai. “I just focus on my own practice,” he said discussing how he would like audiences to engage with the exhibition.

“I think it’s a good idea to present to others as people may share the same kind of emotions or concepts [to you]. But I have no idea – I just don’t know.”

Other recent projects contained in Ai’s extensive portfolio of political work include a cage-like structure in Stockholm and a Quebec City installation made of a wall of life jackets that were used by Syrian refugees while attempting to cross the Mediterranean sea.

The photography is by Ed Reeve unless otherwise stated.

224-238 Kensington High Street, London W8 6AG
7 April to 30 July 2023

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