Ai Wei Wei At the RA – 2015

Ai Wei Wei would be considered by some as a Chinese dissident artist. Bodhimala and Padmapriya went to his first UK exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in Londons Picadilly.

As you might imagine there is a huge franchise of books, cushions with Weisms (mainly Buddhist sayings being re-atributed to Ai Wei Wei) posters, pencils, pens, fridge magnets and more.

The exhibition is overly full of people and it is very difficult to get space to see/experience anything and yet there is an undeniable vibe that permeates Ai Wei Wei’s pieces.

A number of cubes held together with supports from his studio come factory in Bejing and filled with rubble from temples destroyed either by earthquake or maybe the cultural revolution. Each piece is not only art but a political statement, views that got Ai Wei Wei incarcerated and, we are told, tortured.

There are some compelling scale models of his recollections of his imprisonment. Some interesting wallapapers and more besides.

Good, but could have been so much better with a bit of sensible crowd control.