Chinese artist Ai Weiwei on the importance in Trump era of his art inspired by refugee crisis, now on show in streets of New York
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors is made up of 300 works spread across New York’s five boroughs, and is anchored by fences and cages at popular monuments
Ai Weiwei attacks latest Chinese crackdown on free speech and sees little hope Communist Party Congress will bring changes
There are also 200 portrait banners hanging from street lights all over the city featuring images taken while Ai was filming Human Flow, his film about the global refugee crisis. The show runs citywide until February 11.
“The title of the exhibition is a line from a Robert Frost poem,” says Ai, referring to the American poet’s 1914 poem Mending Wall. “It’s fitting for my topic, as it talks about fences and neighbours, something that is important to consider in these times when President Trump wants to build a fence, and calls those on the other side of the fence criminals. It’s amazing that a major power in the world could have this opinion – I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard it.”
Ai’s three large sculptures involve fences and gates which align with New York landmarks to emphasise the idea of freedoms becoming limited and borders closing. The sculpture in Washington Square Park, a popular meeting place for New Yorkers, closes off the historic 1892 arch with a fence, but allows the public access through a human-shaped gateway.
A circular fencewraps around the Unisphere in Flushing, a monument representing openness and internationalism that was conceived for the 1964 World’s Fair. Gilded Cage, in the Doris C. Freedman Plaza on the southeast border of Central Park, is a giant cage designed as a contrast to the open nature of the park.