Ai Weiwei: "Life Cycle" at Marciano Art Foundation until March 3rd 2019

Solo-artist Ai Weiwei: "Life Cycle" can be seen today at Marciano Art Foundation at 4357 Wilshire, Los Angeles, CA until March 3rd 2019.

Photos by Karen Ostlund

Ai Weiwei: "Life Cycle" is made of silk and bamboo

                                                      Ai Weiwei: 
Life Cycle exhibit is made of bamboo and silk, and is accompanied by an illustrated publication, the third in MAF’s Project Series featuring an essay written by mythologist, writer, and professor Martin Shaw.

Marciano Art Foundation announced the third MAF Project in the Theater Gallery, a solo exhibition of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, on view from September 28, 2018 — March 3, 2019. This exhibition is Ai’s first major institutional exhibition in Los Angeles, which features the new and unseen work Life Cycle (2018) – a sculptural response to the global refugee crisis. The exhibition also present iconic installations Sunflower Seeds (2010) and Spouts (2015) within the Foundation’s Theater Gallery.
On view for the first time in the Black Box, Life Cycle (2018) references the artist’s 2017 monumental sculpture Law of the Journey, Ai’s response to the global refugee crisis, which used inflatable, black PVC rubber to depict the makeshift boats used to reach Europe. In this new iteration, Life Cycle shows an inflatable boat through the technique used in traditional Chinese kite-making, exchanging the PVC rubber for bamboo.

Ai Weiwei hanging Feiyu 2015

Suspended around the boat installation are figures crafted from bamboo and silk. In 2015, Ai began creating these figures based on mythic creatures from the Shanhaijing, or Classic of Mountains and Seas. The classic Chinese text compiles mythic geography and myth; versions of the Shanhaijing have existed since the 4th century B.C. These works are crafted in Weifang, a Chinese city in Shandong province with a tradition of kite-making dating back to the Ming dynasty (1368–1644).

Shanhaijing: Weiwei Huantou Guo 2015, all bamboo.
Similar to chapters in a book, or acts in a play, the various scenes include the mythological creatures of the Shanhaijing alongside bamboo versions of Ai’s earlier works, such as Template and Bang, and homages to Marcel Duchamp and Jasper Johns. A central theme running through the ten vignettes is freedom of speech and Ai’s efforts in defending it. Motifs recurring in Ai’s practice—the bicycle, the alpaca, symbols of state surveillance and control—are repeated and multiplied.

Windows (2015), which hangs along the perimeter of the Black Box, draws from Chinese mythology, the tales and illustrations of the Shanhaijing, the history of 20th-century art, and the life and works of the artist. The vignettes feature a dense mix of biographical, mythological, and art historical references to craft a contemporary story.

This multi-faceted installation is a continuation of Ai’s ongoing engagement with politics and social justice. It follows the release of his feature-length documentary, Human Flow (2017), which depicts the refugee crisis on film. In the artist’s op-ed for the Guardian in February 2018, he writes, “I was a child refugee. I know how it feels to live in a camp, robbed of my humanity. Refugees must be seen as an essential part of our shared humanity.”

In the Theater Gallery, Sunflower Seeds (2010), is composed of 49 tons of individual porcelain sunflower seeds made by 1600 artisans from an ancient porcelain production center in Jingdezhen, in China’s Jiangxi province. This installation further expands upon reoccurring themes, such as authenticity, the individual’s role in society, geopolitics of cultural and economic exchange. The work also brings to mind the propaganda posters of the Cultural Revolution, depicting Mao Zedong as the sun and the citizens as sunflowers turning toward him.

Spouts (2015) piles together thousands of antique teapot spouts dating as far back to the Song dynasty (960–1279). Following Ai’s practice of repetition and multiplication, Spouts can be seen as a metaphor for a mass of mouths, and a widespread yearning for freedom of speech despite its continuing restriction throughout many societies. Spouts was previously exhibited in Galleria Continua in Beijing, the 21er Haus in Vienna, and the Sakip Sabanci Museum in Istanbul. This is the first time the complete work is on view

Artist Ai Weiwei has a 2nd ongoing exhibit "Zodiac" at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery until Jan.5 2019 at 925 North Orange drive, in Hollywood, CA www.deitch.com

Facts: Ai Weiwei was born in 1957 in Beijing and currently lives and works in Berlin. He attended the Beijing Film Academy and later, on moving to New York (1983–1993), continued his studies at the Parsons School of Design. Major solo exhibitions include Helsinki Art Museum (2016), Royal Academy of Art, London (2015), Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2014), Indianapolis Museum of Art (2013), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. (2012), Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2011), Tate Modern, London (2010) and Haus der Kunst, Munich (2009). Architectural collaborations include the 2012 Serpentine Pavilion and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium, with Herzog and de Meuron. Among numerous awards and honours, he won the lifetime achievement award from the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards in 2008, the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent from the Human Rights Foundation, New York in 2012, and the Ambassador of Conscience Award from Amnesty International in 2015; he was made Honorary Academician at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 2011.

FREE AMISSION, OPEN: Thursday, Friday and Sunday: 11AM to 5PM,  SAT: 10AM to 6PM, Closed Mondays, 4357 Wilshire, Los Angeles, CA. (www.marcianoartfoundation.org)