WHERE: Indianapolis Museum of Art.
WHEN: Opens Friday, April 5 and remains on view to July 28, 2013.
TITLE: Ai Weiwei: According to What?
BRIEF ABOUT: The first major survey of the art of Ai Weiwei in North America, featuring more than 20 years of works that explore such universal topics as culture, history, politics and tradition, will be on display in the Allen Whitehill Clowes Special Exhibition Gallery.
As one of China’s most prolific and provocative artists, Weiwei has throughout his career offered insight into the interrelation between art, society and individual experience. This retrospective exhibition will include examples from the broad spectrum of his artistic practice, from sculpture, photography and video to site-specific architectural installations. The survey features more than 30 artworks, ranging from a series of more than 100 photographs taken when Weiwei lived in New York in the 1980s, to very recent works created specifically for this North American tour. This exhibition prompts viewers to consider: What exists? And more importantly, according to what does it exist? From what context did we emerge, and to where are we headed now?
Marking the largest exhibition footprint in IMA history, the exhibit will fill all 12,500 square feet of the primary exhibition space, works also will be sited strategically within other museum galleries and common areas to draw comparison with other works from the IMA collection and accommodate large scale pieces. Visitors will encounter a sprawling mound of 3,000 porcelain crabs upon entering the IMA’s Pulliam Family Great Hall, composing Ai’s work He Xie (2010). Translating literally to “river crab,” He Xie is also a homophone for the word meaning “harmonious”—a term used within a slogan for the Chinese Communist Party, but which has been co-opted by others to refer to online censorship and the restriction of free speech.
“The IMA is thrilled to bring to Indianapolis the artwork of the most controversial and important living artist in China,” said Sarah Urist Green, curator of contemporary art. “Many people have heard of Ai Weiwei, but few in the United States have had the opportunity to see his remarkably diverse, poignant and poetic body of work.”
MORE DETAILS: Call 317.923.1331 or www.imamuseum.org.