Ai Weiwei Presents His First Glass Sculpture, Shaped With Skeletons & Organs
Few words can describe what the past couple of years have been like. Ai Weiwei sums it all up in one grim display: a chandelier dangling with glass-blown skeletons, skulls, and organs of humans and animals.
Entitled The Human Comedy: Memento Mori, this is the first glass sculpture crafted by the Chinese art activist. Its name is derived from Dante’s The Divine Comedy, while Memento Mori means “Remember You Must Die” in Latin. Ai Weiwei created it with a team of artists on the Venetian island of Murano.
The hanging artwork is a commentary on the tumult of disasters that have befallen humankind and the climate in recent years. Through this chandelier-ossuary, the artist warns of hubris in these trying times, provoking its audience to reflect on their arrogance amid pressing matters.
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Work for the sculpture began three years ago, even before the pandemic began being peppered into our everyday conversations. But now with COVID-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the escalating refugee crisis, Big Tech’s surveillance, China’s grip on Taiwan, and the aggravating climate problem, its message speaks louder than ever.
The 29.5-foot black glass sculpture is now on display at the deconsecrated Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, opposite Venice’s St Mark’s Square. It’s the centerpiece of Ai’s new exhibit showcasing sculptures made of glass, a material that he’s not known to work with.
The Human Comedy consists of 2,000 intricate, hand-blown glass parts resembling human and animal skeletons and skulls. There are also pieces reminiscent of the Twitter bird and surveillance cameras, a reference to technology’s ugly side.
“We are talking about many, many things,” Ai shares with the Associated Press.
He opens up in a separate interview with the Art Newspaper that the dismal chandelier is a reminder that death follows everyone at all times—no matter how much they choose to ignore it and shrug it off as “something that happens to other people.”
In total, the sculpture weighs 2,700 kilograms (5,952 pounds). Ai and a team of artists spent the last three years working on the piece from a glass studio on Murano, applying three techniques on the work: traditional Murano-style blown glass, wax molds, and injection molds.
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The church showcase includes smaller glasswork by Ai, including a sculpture of himself as a prisoner, alluding to his time being incarcerated; and a remix on the 18th-century Allegory of Envy statue.
The exhibition will run through November 27, with the chandelier poised to travel to London’s Design Museum thereafter, before potentially going on sale.
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[via Associated Press, The National, The Art Newspaper, images via Ai Weiwei]
