ART CITIES:Austin-Ai Weiwei
Drawing on current global politics, Chinese culture, human rights, and more to push the definition of art into new realms, Ai Weiwei consistently places himself at risk to effect social change and has amplified his own artistic voice by expanding his output to include films, photography, writing, publishing, curation, and architecture. Permeated by social conscience, humor, and compassion, his work has included a range of unorthodox methods, materials, and subject matter.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: The Contemporary Austin Archive
Two Ai Weiwei’s monumental sculptures are installed in Austin. “Forever Bicycles” (2014), is installed by The Contemporary Austin at the Waller Delta and “Iron Tree Trunk” (2015), at The Contemporary Austin’s Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park. Incorporating more than 1,200 bicycles in a striking composition, “Forever Bicycles” recalls the “readymade” sculptures of 20th Century Western artists such as Marcel Duchamp, which remove an everyday object from its expected environs and reconstitute it into something new by displacing its original function. Ai’s sculpture takes as its subject the Forever brand bicycle, once ubiquitous on the streets of Beijing. A means of not only transportation but also social mobility and a coveted luxury item when the artist was growing up in China, in contemporary times the Forever bicycle has given way to aspirations of car ownership. Given this context, the installation here imparts poignant commentary through 1,200 of these nostalgic objects assembled into a sculpture, whose wheels are now frozen in perpetual cycle. “Iron Tree Trunk” offers a poetic composition rich with references to the artist’s Chinese heritage as well as to the landscape of the surrounding sculpture park. Since 2009, Ai has explored the theme of trees and, especially, felled tree trunks, branches, and roots, creating large-scale, minimalist works in cast iron or, at times, using the original wood. The artist was inspired by a Chinese tradition local to the city of Jingdezhen and encountered by the artist during a visit in 2009, in which dried tree sections, appreciated for their complexity and aesthetic and contemplative qualities, are sold at market to be displayed in homes. Ai began his series of iron trees by collecting parts of dead trees that had been gathered from mountainous areas in southern China. The artist then pieces segments of different trees together, joining them with oversized bolts and screws and casting the final compositions in iron, leaving clues to their making to reveal that these amalgamations are actually man-made replicas and hybrid specimens. Other sculptures in this series might be created from individually cast elements that are then bolted together, or may incorporate traditional woodworking joinery techniques.
Info: The Contemporary Austin, Jones Center, 700 Congress Avenue, Austin, Duration: 23/6- , Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, Sun 12:00-17:00 and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park, Laguna Gloria, 3809 West 35th Street, Austin, Duration: 23/6- , Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 9:00-17:00, Sun 10:00-17:00, www.thecontemporaryaustin.org
