"Tiger, Tiger, Tiger" and "Ai Weiwei"

Photos of Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) holding his returned passport have been circulating the internet for some time. It looks as if Ai is holding a trophy. It is symbolic, though, but still a rare victory to mark. For long, Ai has been fighting for his civil right to freely exit the country. But when the moment comes, he wills to turn inward and, with all he could sum up, do it in the vicinity of his neighborhood. Politics is as always a key feature here, but in a much muted way.

For first-time visitors at Caochangdi, highly perched surveillance cameras along the road serve well as directional guidance to Ai's residence-studio. Stare into the dark, chilling void of the lenses, one would likely wonder if the faceless "Big Brother" is still watching. To one’s delight, however, are the blazingly colorful, freshly cut flowers placed in a bicycle basket just outside the entrance. The flowers are sometimes out of sight, though, missing probably because they are “taken” by Ai’s villager neighbors. But what cannot be missed is the "258 FAKE" sign fixed beside the greenish gate door, hung in a way to look like an address plaque. Not far from Ai's studio at Chambers art gallery, a porcelain replicate of Ai's flower basket is on exhibition. Does he attempt to immortalize his own rebellious spirit, or simply to keep a souvenir for his helpless days in fighting for a course with bare hands?

Ai Weiwei, Bicycle Basket with Flowers , 2014, porcelain, 37 x 34 x 20cm.

Ai Weiwei, Bicycle Basket with Flowers (detail) , 2014, porcelain, 37 x 34 x 20cm.

Ai Weiwei, Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, 2015, 3,025 porcelain shards, dimension variable

Ai Weiwei, Tiger, Tiger, Tiger (detail), 2015, 3,025 porcelain shards, dimension variable.

The title of the exhibition here is “Tiger, Tiger, Tiger”, as referring to the work comprising of thousands of blue-and-white porcelain shards, which are broken off from larger objects. Each of these pieces includes the imagery of tigers in its various depictions. They show up in different sizes and postures. Some even look odd enough to be misidentified as other species. “Tigers are hard to beat” is probably the message hinted by Ai, for there are too many of them, and they always come back in different forms. A polite reminder to reformers: beating them all would take a war. More noticeably to visitors when they first enter the gallery's courtyard, however, is a towering wood assemblage. This tree-shaped installation is sinuous and weather-beaten of a sort appropriated by the Chinese aesthetics. One may marvel at how perfectly the boughs, clearly coming from different sources, fit into each other to create this mirage of a unity. Look closely, however, one may question if the grafted pieces, as a whole, would withstand natural forces for long despite its "awe and wonder" look.

Ai Weiwei, Tree, 2015, tree sections and stell, 7.4 x 7.1 x 6.9m.

Ai Weiwei, Tree (detail), 2015, tree sections and stell, 7.4 x 7.1 x 6.9m.

Ai Weiwei, Crystal Cube, 2014, crystal, 100 x 100 x 100cm.

As for the joint-space exhibition at the tourist packed 798 art district, Ai once again makes his statement forcefully through sizable works. Remember the 9,000 children's backpacks in a Munich museum? Or the 100 million sunflower seeds in Tate? Ai is well-known for using repetition, in a magnitude that might have made Andy Warhol feel sheepish. Thousands of teapot sprouts are arranged to neatly cover a square field on the floor. The meaning? No explanation as usual from the artist's side. But anyone familiar with the Chinese culture of comparing teapots to the manhood would have an idea or two about what the work points to.

Ai Weiwei, Field of Teapot Sprouts, 2015, porcelain, size unkown.

In terms of sheer size, the centerpiece encompassing both exhibition places is a Ming-dynasty-era ancestral hall, reassembled with newly added braces and fixes that can be easily spotted. Audiences are lured to the second floor to view this ancient architecture from an upper angel. Here a video documentary is played in cycles to show how this giant installation is dissembled and transported from its original site. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp, Ai extends the concept of daily objects to include historical pieces and transforms them into an art that speaks contemporary language.

Ai Weiwei, Wang Family Ancestral Hall, 2015, wooden elements with painted replacements, 21 x 16.8 x 9.4m.

Unlike most of his contemporaries who consciously choose to stylize their works, Ai seems to care less about that. While consistency in forms is still necessary, a universal concept or ideology is probably more important for him. In general, Ai likes the practice of picking up historical or cultural remains, rebranding them as avant-gardism, inflating them to a degree of absurdity, and finally presenting them to a public that tends to judge by the scale and the visual effects it helps with.

Ai Weiwei, Dragon Lantern and Tables, 2015, antique dragon lamp with wooden structure, 190 x 22 x 55cm.

Ai Weiwei, Dragon Lantern and Tables (detail), 2015, antique dragon lamp with wooden structure, 190 x 22 x 55cm.

More information about the exhibitions:

“Tiger, Tiger, Tiger”

Chambers Fine Art

Caochangdi, Beijing

Exhibit opens on June 13

www.chambersfineart.com

"Ai Weiwei"

Galleria Continua/Tang Contemporary Art

District 798, Beijing

+86 10 5978-9505

Through Sept. 6

www.galleriacontinua.com