Cambridge Castle

This was our first visit to the contemporary art gallery next to Kettle's Yard house and we attended a new exhibition by Ai Weiwei (born 1957, Beijing, China), one of the world’s most renowned and significant artists; he was joint architect of the Bird's Nest stadium built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. From 2009, however, he has been a Chinese Exile due to his activism; he spent some of this time living in Cambridge, but moved in 2020 to live in Portugal.

His Liberty of Doubt exhibition sets out to explore both the freedom of the West has in contrast to China and other authoritative regimes, and the differing traditions in the art of the East and West (ie ancient and modern) in relation to authenticity. He has mixed his own artworks with historic Chinese objects; the antiquities on display were acquired by Ai Weiwei at an auction in Cambridge in 2020, and some have been identified some as original and others as counterfeit. 

Highlights that we saw included the following:

Chinese lacquered Greystone fragmentary hand, clutching a bottle; probably the hand of a Bodhisattva.

Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn; in 1995, Ai Weiwei intentionally dropped a Han Dynasty urn while being photographed – simultaneously destroying and making - and drew attention to the Chinese government’s widespread destruction of the country’s heritage.  This exhibit was actually made from Lego bricks (in 2015).

Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo, 2014; one of a series in which Ai has painted the Coca-Cola logo onto an ancient vessel - burnishing an historical Chinese artefact with a globally recognisable brand, he considers the place of China within contemporary consumer culture.

Blue and White Porcelain Plates, 2017; Inspired by the ancient Greek story of The Odyssey, Ai reflects on the cyclical nature of history in the imagery of these plates, drawing a correlation between the journey undertaken by Odysseus and the ongoing global refugee crisis. The plates show six themes: War, Ruins, the Journey, Crossing the Sea, Refugee Camps, Demonstrations.

Marble Surveillance Camera with Plinth, 2014; since 2008, Ai’s studio compound in Beijing has been surrounded by over two dozen surveillance cameras put in place by the authorities - following this intrusive act, Ai has frequently investigated the theme of surveillance in his work.

The Chair for Non-attendance, 2013; originally made to commemorate a friend who was detained by the Chinese state, it was presented in 2013 at the Stockholm Film Festival, where Ai had been invited to be a juror, but was prevented from attending due to being barred from leaving China by state officials.

Marble Takeout Box, 2015; the locally produced Styrofoam takeout box is the most ubiquitous takeaway container in China, yet the country is the nation that has produced the highest quality porcelain in the past.

Marble Toilet Paper, 2020; the whole world was in a panic in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and unnoticed and everyday objects suddenly became scarce in all the supermarkets and this work lays bare how fragile civilized progress actually is.

Three of his documentary films were also featured; Coronation (2020) about the pandemic in Wuhan, Cockroach (2020) about the student protests in Hong Kong and and Human Flow (2017) about the global migration crisis - we did not see these.

An interesting afternoonRead more