Ai Weiwei at The Brooklyn Museum

This past weekend we went to go see Ai Weiwei's exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. If you have the chance to get to Brooklyn this summer, you can't miss it. After seeing the 2012 documentary on Ai's life and work, Never Sorry, I have been fascinated by his unwavering perseverance to use his art to stand up to the Chinese government and the injustices around him. An activist in the truest sense of the word, he has used his platform to tell the stories of those who have no voice--doing so despite incarceration, constant surveillance, a brain injury, and multiple attempts from the government to censor him. The exhibit contains installations from a twenty-year span of his work in different mediums including film, photography, sculpture and architecture.

Every piece tells a powerful story, such as the installation above. This work is 73 tons of steel bars Ai recovered from the rubble of the poorly-built schools that collapsed after the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake left almost 90,000 people dead or missing--5,000 of which were schoolchildren. The bars are surrounded by a room of walls which list the name and ages of all who were lost in the quake, while audio pays overhead of people reading the names aloud.

The room above contains “Ye Haiyan’s Belongings,” so named for a women's' rights and AIDS activist who was left on the side of the street with her daughter along with everything she owned as a response from the Chinese government to her efforts. The wallpaper is comprised of photographs of every item she owned documented by Ai's team, while in the middle of the room there is a replication of everything as it was when she was left by the authorities.

What make the exhibit even more amazing to me was its place within a larger concept of the Museum's "Activism Season." It is one of four exhibits currently on display that delve into what it means to use art as activism, including Witness: Art and Civil Rights in the Sixties, Swoon: Submerged Motherlands that explores environmental issues, and the early work of feminist artist Judy Chicago. Seeing the exhibits connected within this broader theme intensified their impact and allowed the viewer to reflect on the power of art for the purpose of social responsibility.

Part of Weiwei's Forever Bicycles

Colored Vases

I highly recommend making your way over to the Brooklyn Museum to catch this wonderful exhibit. Ai Weiwei is there until August 10th!