I follow the artist Ai WeiWei on
he documents his travels
taking photos of everything,
everyone and his son
having never seen his work
we took a visit to the Royal Academy
his work is impressive
I imagine he employs an army of people
to source the beautiful materials
for his installations
each piece has a background
a history
a story
it's not all pretty
'Straight' is a seismographic 90 tons of iron bars
that once held up buildings
highlighting the corruption which made school buildings
vulnerable in the Sichuan earthquake, 2008
he makes known the authorities who try to
destroy inconvenient histories
cao {grass} each blade and their hexagon bases
taken from the same quarry, the same marble used for
Mao's mausoleum in Tiananmen Square
like these tightly packed marble grasses
the gallery spaces were very busy
everyone wants to see what the fuss is about
WeiWei is news
"Today is very different. I still have the internet and I can still manage to organise exhibitions with established institutions. In today’s condition, I do not think that anybody can stop the exchange of ideas."
