It is amazing what can be created with Lego bricks and old buttons
THE PROVOCATIVE CHINESE artist Ai Weiwei was born in Beijing in 1957. He now works in places around the world including Beijing. In 2011, he was arrested in Beijing and held without charge for 81 days. At other times, he has been harassed by the Chinese state. Despite this and his overtly artistic criticism of the ruling regime of the People’s Republic of China and several periods of exile from that country, he now spends some time working in his studio in a house near Beijing. The rest of his time is spent working in various places including Cambridge (UK), Lisbon (Portugal), and Berlin (Germany). At the Lisson Gallery in Bell Street (near London’s Edgware Road stations), there is a small but wonderful exhibition of works by Ai Weiwei, which will continue until 15 March 2025.
The exhibits on display at the Lisson Gallery demonstrate the incredibly inventive and imaginative nature of Ai Weiwei’s creations. Two of the works on display are rusted cast-iron sculptures. Two huge images, one in the style of Van Gogh and the other in the style of Gauguin, are made using many thousands of tiny toy (? Lego) bricks of different colours. From a distance these, and other large pictures made with the tiny bricks seem as if they are painted, but seen close-up it is obvious that the images are a complex mosaic of toy bricks.
Other exhibits also employ Lego bricks. These are not flattish creations like the ones mentioned above, but three-dimensional sculptures. In each case, the artist has taken an object (e.g., a rusting military helmet or a porcelain model of a lion) and partially enclosed it within a structure made of Lego bricks.
Buttons are extensively employed in other exhibits. Ai Weiwei sourced the buttons from the now closed A Brown and Co Buttons factory. The buttons, which are variously coloured, are used like the Lego bricks to produce mosaics depicting words and images. The buttons are sewn on to fabrics and in one case onto a ring of sandals.
Without doubt, each of Ai Weiwei’s creations are based on his interpretation of events historical and contemporary. However, although knowing the ideas behind his artworks adds to the understanding of the show, the exhibition at Lisson Gallery can be enjoyed without any knowledge of what was going through the artist’s head while he was creating the works.
