Friday 23 October 2015

Ai Weiwei at the RA

Almost 2 weeks ago since my visit to see the Ai Weiwei exhibition at the RA!
Loved the trees in the courtyard and proud of the small part I played via 'Kickstarter' of bringing it to London - my  name, along with the 1000+ others is recorded  on the stairs.
 I didn't know quite what to expect but was overwhelmed by the beauty of some of the artworks , enhanced by the meaning and background to them.

This enormous  piece in room 3, made of straightened metal bars from  collapsed buildings was not only stunning in its scale and the subtle waves and  patterns but brought a lump to my throat, with it's  reference to  the impact of shoddy construction of public buildings such as schools and the list of the thousands of students who lost their lives when buildings collapsed in an earthquake.  

 

The tale behind the piece in room 4 with studio pulled down as supposedly didn't meet build regulations beggars belief

 The use he'd made of antique ceramics  is controversial - dropping pieces or grinding them up I'm not too sure about but I loved the brightly coloured Neolithic pots. It felt like he was honouring the craftsmen of the past by bring new life to what some regard as dusty relics. I think if they'd had access to such colours they'd have used them. After all I'm a 'quilt resurrectionist' myself!
 
 
Also liked the map of  China in room 6 and the chandelier made of bicycles! 
 
I've since been to the Fabric of India exhibition at the V&A ( fabulous!)  and going to the  Celts : Art and Identity at the British Museum  with Ian tomorrow after lunch at Savoir Faire .  Have  just  paid for  membership of both V&A and British Museum so that as well as getting into exhibitions, can use the members rooms as 'clubs' when  coming up to town from Faversham . 
 
 

1 comment:

Susan Briscoe said...

The exhibition looks amazing.

Good idea re having membership - we did for a year for the British Museum but only got to use it twice, being a bit too far away! It was still worth it, even just for that!