P-00655-No-314-320-Stack_rt_1
Ai Weiwei: Making Sense
UNTITLED (LEGO INCIDENT), 2014
Lego bricks
As a modular building system, Lego is a good metaphor for the speed and repetitiveness of much recent construction in China. Like other objects in these fields, it is produced on an industrial scale, though machine-made as opposed to hand-crafted. Ai started working with this material in 2014, to produce portraits of political prisoners. When Lego briefly stopped selling to him as a result, his response on social media led to overwhelming donations of bricks from the public. Ai often uses Lego to construct images because it is an objective kit of parts that removes the trace of the artist's hand and does not rely on his skill or taste.
All text above is Copyright The Design Museum © April 2023
P-00655-No-314-320-Stack_rt_1
Ai Weiwei: Making Sense
UNTITLED (LEGO INCIDENT), 2014
Lego bricks
As a modular building system, Lego is a good metaphor for the speed and repetitiveness of much recent construction in China. Like other objects in these fields, it is produced on an industrial scale, though machine-made as opposed to hand-crafted. Ai started working with this material in 2014, to produce portraits of political prisoners. When Lego briefly stopped selling to him as a result, his response on social media led to overwhelming donations of bricks from the public. Ai often uses Lego to construct images because it is an objective kit of parts that removes the trace of the artist's hand and does not rely on his skill or taste.
All text above is Copyright The Design Museum © April 2023