Ai Weiwei : good fences make good neighbors

Ai Weiwei Good fences make good neighbors

Book - 2019

"A comprehensive presentation of Ai Weiwei's recent public art exhibition Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, a powerful reflection on the global refugee crisis. Internationally renowned Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) transformed over 300 sites across New York City into a compelling, ambitious public art exhibition concerned with the global refugee and migration crises. Good Fences Make Good Neighbors (on view from October 2017 to February 2018) consisted of immersive large-scale sculptures for city monuments, fences on building facades and bus stops, and portraits of refugees and immigrants displayed on outdoor banners. This publication documents the extraordinary project from conception to final installation, givin...g a behind-the-scenes look at the research, preparatory drawings, planning, and fabrication that brought it to life. The book includes an in-depth interview with Ai Weiwei about the project's personal significance, an essay by curator Nicholas Baume, and statements from a wide variety of individuals--including Olafur Eliasson, David Miliband, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Jorge Ramos, among many others--about their interactions with the artworks. As Baume asserts, "Ai Weiwei created a remarkable model for what great public art strives to be--emotionally engaging and politically resonant, conceptually and formally inventive yet broadly accessible.""--

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Location Call Number   Status
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Subjects
Ai, Weiwei > Criticism and interpretation.
Public art > New York (State) > New York.
Conceptual art > New York (State) > New York.
Installations (Art) > New York (State) > New York.
Exhibition catalogs.
Genres
Exhibition catalogs
Published
New York : Public Art Fund [2019]
Language
English
Other Authors
Nicholas Baume (author), Daniel S. Palmer (-), Kateriana Stathopoulou, Weiwei Ai
Physical Description
303 pages : chiefly illustrations (some color), color maps ; 32 cm
ISBN
9780300243796
  • The art of political landscaping / Nicholas Baume
  • Ai Weiwei in conversation with Nicholas Baume
  • Midtown Manhattan
  • Gilded cage
  • Banners
  • Uptown Manhattan
  • Bronx & Queens
  • Bus shelters
  • Circle fence
  • Brooklyn & Staten Island
  • Good neighbors
  • Downtown Manhattan
  • Exodus
  • Odyssey
  • Chrystie street fence
  • Bowery fence
  • 7th street fence
  • Five fences
  • Arch
  • Mending wall / Robert Frost.
Review by Choice Review

Ai Weiwei's citywide exhibition Good Fences Make Good Neighbors opened in New York City in October 2017 and ran through February 2019. During that period, the artist created more than 300 pieces of public art that called attention to the plight of the 68.5 million individuals worldwide who were misplaced refugees. This book is a record of both the exhibition and how this huge, spatially extended exhibit came about. About two-thirds of the pieces (200 in all) were banners on lampposts, with images of individual refugees ranging from the famous of the past to those suffering in camps round the world today. Ai Weiwei and his team traveled to many camps to obtain the photographs. The exhibit also included 100 sections of fencing and a number of free-standing pieces spread throughout the city; these were intended not as barriers but as invitations for discussion. Among the fences was a 37-foot-tall cage placed in the Washington Square Arch. Baume opens the catalogue with "The Art of Political Landscaping" and "Ai Weiwei in Conversation with Nicholas Baume." A biography of Ai Weiwei is woven throughout. The acknowledgments are fascinating in that they address the immense complications that had to be addressed in putting on such a public event. Summing Up: Essential. All readers. --Dale K. Haworth, emeritus, Carleton College

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

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