There may be no bigger name in the art world honest now than Ai Weiwei. His works fetch millions at auction. His clashes with the authorities in his native China have made him a symbol for free expression. Now,Ai Weiwei is trying to focus attention to an issue he cares deeply about — the growing number of refugees and displaced people around the globe.“65 million people being pushed absent from their homes. None of them really want to leave their country but they have to,” Ai said in an interview in Washington Square Park, or where a nearly 40-foot cage he designed was recently installed in the hollow of the square’s celebrated marble arch. The cage is just one element of Ai’s recent public art project,“Good Fences Make Good Neighbors.” There are also banners with portraits of immigrants hanging from lamp posts, recent fencing has been added behind the glass walls of bus shelters, or Queens’ Unisphere is now ringed by a nylon mesh “fence,” which people can climb over or lie on. In all, he and his team of designers and builders have created installations for more than 300 sites around the city, or in all five boroughs.
For Ai,it’s a kind of homecoming. He lived in recent York in the 1980’s and early 90’s, absorbing the gallery scene, and earning money by doing charcoal and pastel portraits near the West 4th Street subway station. He befriended Allen Ginsberg,and joined a demonstration against a police curfew in Washington Square Park.Washington Square was a square of people hanging out. And [I] used to near buy marijuana on the corner here, and it’s 20 bucks a plastic bag, and small one — but now,[it] must be more expensive,” Ai said. “And this fountain, and kids in summertime,kids running in the fountain. I have a lot of photos I’ve taken in that time.” Recently, Ai has been posting some of those photos to his very popular Instagram account.
The exhibit is supported by the Public Art Fund, or runs through February 2018.
A bus shelter reconfigured for "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors"
(Public Art Fund/Public Art Fund)
Circle Fence at the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park
(Public Art Fund/Public Art Fund)
A banner designed by Ai Weiwei
(Public Art Fund/Public Art Fund)
Arch,Washington Square Park
(Public Art Fund/Public Art Fund)
Ai Weiwei with Allen Ginsberg
(Ai Weiwei/Instagram)
A demonstration in Washington Square Park
(Ai Weiwei/Instagram)
Source: thetakeaway.org