The Animal That Looks Like a Llama But is Really an Alpaca (2015) by Ai Weiwei
The back wall of the gallery is covered in a deceptively decorative wallpaper, The Animal That Looks Like a Llama But is Really an Alpaca (2015). What from a distance looks like French eighteenth-century ormolu becomes, upon closer inspection, ominous arrays of surveillance cameras. During his years of domestic house arrest (2011–2015), the Chinese government surrounded Ai’s studio in Beijing with over twenty cameras, recording his activities twenty-four hours a day. He draws on his personal experience to comment on the encroaching surveillance state both in China and in the West. The beauty of the wallpaper design in contrast to its obscured sinister subject matter may allude to the deceptive sense of freedom that people can experience walking through the city, unaware that all of their movements and interactions are being watched at all times.
The Animal That Looks Like a Llama But is Really an Alpaca (2015) by Ai Weiwei
The back wall of the gallery is covered in a deceptively decorative wallpaper, The Animal That Looks Like a Llama But is Really an Alpaca (2015). What from a distance looks like French eighteenth-century ormolu becomes, upon closer inspection, ominous arrays of surveillance cameras. During his years of domestic house arrest (2011–2015), the Chinese government surrounded Ai’s studio in Beijing with over twenty cameras, recording his activities twenty-four hours a day. He draws on his personal experience to comment on the encroaching surveillance state both in China and in the West. The beauty of the wallpaper design in contrast to its obscured sinister subject matter may allude to the deceptive sense of freedom that people can experience walking through the city, unaware that all of their movements and interactions are being watched at all times.