It was a struggle to fit this trip in, but we just had to go to Manchester for Ai Weiwei‘s biggest exhibition in the north of the UK. Weiwei is world-famous for his critique of the Chinese state, born out of his family’s relentless persecution, which led to his eventual imprisonment and then exile to Europe. His art has always been monumentally impressive, questioning human rights and defending the freedom of expression.
His previous installation on Alcatraz in 2014 is worth looking at. Political prisoners around the world had their portraits made in Lego, and the 900,000 visitors were invited to write postcards to them as they exited. Interviews with the released prisoners were incredibly moving, in how simple postcards from strangers gave them hope in times of total despair. Art at its best.
In Button Up, Weiwei confronted British and Chinese history in the huge space of Factory International. A monumental wall of the most deadly bombs ever created by man was made from hundreds of thousands of Lego bricks. An enormous inflatable raft of refugees cast a dark shadow across the entire space, and flags of all the nations that have invaded China, made of individually sewn buttons, hung in cold silence.
Towards the end, we read the astonishing story of Weiwei’s life, how his father’s poetry led to his persecution and imprisonment, which inevitably influenced the young Ai and gave him the passion to continue the fight for freedom of speech in whatever way he could.
