One of three exhibits at the Venice Art Biennale 2013 by pioneering Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, was Bang, an installation which occupied a large bare space, where its sprawling sculptural mass was composed of 885 three legged stools, handcrafted by Chinese carpenters. The inspiration for the piece was the disinterest and demoting of the position of this humble household object in modern day China. In the not too distant past, every family had owned a similar wooden stool, passed down through generations as an inexpensive yet cherished heirloom.
In recent years, the appreciation for a handmade object of natural material has been replaced by admiration for the brightly coloured plastic items of our disposable society. Through the installation, the artist mourns the depreciation of the artisan products and relates each stool to a human being and his position at the losing end of the rapid changes which his country is undergoing, leaving the population in an increasingly vulnerable position of not being able to cope with the new dynamics of their world.
Since the artist’s return to China, after spending some 12 years in the US, he has been increasingly interested in the maintenance of cultural values within his country, and has chosen to spread his views globally through the medium of his art.
