Ai Weiwei: Trace at Hirshhorn Exhibit |
The Ai Weiwei: Trace at Hirshhorn Exhibit, opened last June 28,
2017 at the Hirshhorn
Museum and Sculpture Garden, is a collaborative artist project featuring
the East Coast debut of the monumental installation Trace.
Check out "Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden"
Ai Weiwei |
It portrays 176
individuals, from more than 30 countries (the majority of whom are from Asia
and the Middle East) whom Ai
Weiwei (b. Beijing,
1957), one of China’s most provocative living artists, and various human rights
groups consider to be activists, prisoners of conscience, and advocates of free
speech who have been detained, exiled, or have sought political asylum because
of their actions, beliefs or affiliations. The show runs until January 1, 2018.
Trace. On the right wall is the 360-degree wallpaper installation entitled The Plain Version of the Animal That Looks Like a Llama but Is Really an Alpaca |
The work foregrounds Ai
Weiwei’s own experiences of incarceration, interrogation, and surveillance. In
2011, he was detained by the Chinese government for 81 days and then, until
2015, prohibited from traveling abroad. Each of these portraits,
comprising thousands of plastic Lego
bricks, were assembled by hand and laid out on the floor.
Biography/Timeline of Ai Weiwei |
Complementing the display
of Trace is a new 360-degree wallpaper installation entitled The Plain Version of the Animal That Looks
Like a Llama but Is Really an Alpaca. At first glance, the repeating
graphic pattern looks merely decorative. However, at closer inspection,
it reveals surveillance cameras, handcuffs, and Twitter bird logos (which
allude to Ai Weiwei’s tweets challenging authority). Together, both massive
works span nearly 700 linear feet around the Hirshhorn’s second floor Outer
Ring galleries.
Some of the 176 portraits |
Ai
Weiwei: Trace at Hirshhorn Exhibit: 2/F, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: 700
Independence Ave SW & 7th St SW, National Mall, Washington, D.C.
20560, United States.
Website: www.hirshhorn.si.edu. Admission
is free. Open daily, 10 AM – 5:30 PM.
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