S.A.C.R.E.D, 2012
Six-part work composed of six dioramas – Supper, Accusers, Cleansing, Ritual, Entropy, Doubt – in fibreglass, iron, oxidized metal, wood, polystyrene, sticky tape
This work appears as six shoulder-height iron cuboids, as if a paean to austere Minimalism. But through apertures, one can see dioramas inside each cuboid that stage different situations that Ai had to endure. The artist and his guards are replicated in fibreglass, in miniature.
[Ai of the tiger, RA blog]
On Sunday 3 April 2011, Ai was arrested at Beijing airport as he prepared to travel to Taipei. He was illegally detained at a secret location for 81 days. Initially handcuffed, he was accompanied 24 hours a day by two guards who were forbidden to communicate with him. The only source of ventilation for his windowless room was a small wall fan.
Ai memorised every detail of the cell, whose walls and every piece of whose furniture were wrapped in plastic. On his release on 22 June 2011 he was forbidden to discuss his incarceration and was placed on parole for twelve months; in addition to this his passport was withheld. Despite this restriction Ai re-created six models of his cell, all half actual size, and populated them with figures of himself engaged in different activities under the watchful eyes of his guards. The dioramas of S.A.C.R.ED. reveal how degrading Ai's detntion was and leave little doubt that the intense and claustrophobic experience he underwent was designed to break his spirit and discourage him from publicly challenging the Chinese authorities.
Following Ai's release, his company Fake Design Ltd was formally charged with tax evasion. The authorities fined the company nearly £1.5 million and gave 15 days to pay. The public offered their unsolicited support by giving him money towards settling the tax demand. Some threw donations over the wall of his studio compound while others contributed online. Ai responded with I.O.U., a work in which he wrote promissory notes to each of these 30,000 donors. These notes were in turn scanned and turned into wallpaper.
[Royal Academy]
S.A.C.R.E.D, 2012
Six-part work composed of six dioramas – Supper, Accusers, Cleansing, Ritual, Entropy, Doubt – in fibreglass, iron, oxidized metal, wood, polystyrene, sticky tape
This work appears as six shoulder-height iron cuboids, as if a paean to austere Minimalism. But through apertures, one can see dioramas inside each cuboid that stage different situations that Ai had to endure. The artist and his guards are replicated in fibreglass, in miniature.
[Ai of the tiger, RA blog]
On Sunday 3 April 2011, Ai was arrested at Beijing airport as he prepared to travel to Taipei. He was illegally detained at a secret location for 81 days. Initially handcuffed, he was accompanied 24 hours a day by two guards who were forbidden to communicate with him. The only source of ventilation for his windowless room was a small wall fan.
Ai memorised every detail of the cell, whose walls and every piece of whose furniture were wrapped in plastic. On his release on 22 June 2011 he was forbidden to discuss his incarceration and was placed on parole for twelve months; in addition to this his passport was withheld. Despite this restriction Ai re-created six models of his cell, all half actual size, and populated them with figures of himself engaged in different activities under the watchful eyes of his guards. The dioramas of S.A.C.R.ED. reveal how degrading Ai's detntion was and leave little doubt that the intense and claustrophobic experience he underwent was designed to break his spirit and discourage him from publicly challenging the Chinese authorities.
Following Ai's release, his company Fake Design Ltd was formally charged with tax evasion. The authorities fined the company nearly £1.5 million and gave 15 days to pay. The public offered their unsolicited support by giving him money towards settling the tax demand. Some threw donations over the wall of his studio compound while others contributed online. Ai responded with I.O.U., a work in which he wrote promissory notes to each of these 30,000 donors. These notes were in turn scanned and turned into wallpaper.
[Royal Academy]