Andy Warhol — Ai Weiwei Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria, 11 December 2015 To 24 April 2016. Website
The NGV has paired two major stars in order to explore 'the significant influence of these two exemplary artists on modern art and contemporary life'. Although the juxtaposition of seminal works by pop art's high prince with the creations of a scruffy Chinese provocateur can seem like 'a forced marriage', there are more than enough connections to show the genius of the idea.
For instance, recognisable sites like Beijing's Gate of Heavenly Peace have been famously photographed by both artists; each reflects upon the role of heroes and in so doing subverts the paradigm through their depictions (there are two different Maos on show); and they both embrace the capacity of found objects to cast societal norms in new lights.
Thus Warhol's 1969 Campbell's Soup II: Tomato-Beef Noodle O's riff on consumerism can be set against Ai's Forever Bicycles (1500 bicycles hanging from a ceiling), which nostalgically comments on the rush of economic development in a feat of mesmerising geometric wizardry.
Ai's recent stoush with Danish toymaker Lego is cheekily referenced in his new work, Letgo Room, 2015. This walk-in room features 20 prominent Australian human rights activists (including Archie Roach, Julian Burnside, Debbie Kilroy, Peter Greste and Rosie Battie) portrayed in plastic building blocks. It is quintessentially Ai: collaborative, thought-provoking and fun.
In a light-hearted way the exhibition also disarms critics by including the photograph At the Museum of Modern Art 1987, which shows a youthful, clean-shaven Ai aping Warhol's own image, in an act that is both homage and playful poke. See? says the exhibition. There's much we can tell you through this artful bringing together, if you'll but listen.
For all that Ai is a global figure incorporating insights from many Western influences (Duchamp's influence is prominent), it is important to remember that he is first a citizen of the People's Republic of China, and steeped in classical antecedents and tradition. It is impossible to understand Ai Weiwei and his work fully without reference to the history and politics of modern China, and his own place in it.
Ai Weiwei might be more Dada than Dao and a hirsute satirist of Beijing's rulers — this exhibition is a rare time he has actually seen his works on display in a foreign gallery because his passport was recently taken for more than 600 days — but he is no mere