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Weiwei recreates Monet's water lilies using 650,000 Lego pieces

Weiwei recreates Monet's water lilies using 650,000 Lego pieces

When Chinese artist Ai Weiwei opens his new show in April, visitors will encounter a familiar scene at London's Design Museum: Claude Monet's famous water lilies. But instead of being made up of the French painter's Impressionist brushstrokes, the monumental recreation is made of Lego brick studs, 650,000 of them in 22 different colors. Titled "Water Lilies #1," the nearly 50-foot-wide piece is the largest piece of Lego art He's ever made, according to the museum.

Weiwei recreates Monet's water lilies using 650,000 Lego pieces

His version depicts the idyllic lily ponds of Monet's home in Giverny, but includes, on the right-hand side, a "dark portal" that alludes to Ai's childhood in China's Xinjiang region. According to a museum press release, the dark Lego piece represents the door to an underground dungeon where the artist lived with his father in exile during the 1960s.

Weiwei recreates Monet's water lilies using 650,000 Lego pieces

In "Water Lilies #1" I integrate Monet's impressionistic painting, reminiscent of Zenism in the East, and the concrete experiences of my father and I in a digitized and pixelated language. Toy bricks as a material, with their qualities of rigidity and potential for deconstruction, reflect the attributes of language in our rapidly evolving age where human consciousness is constantly divided.

Weiwei recreates Monet's water lilies using 650,000 Lego pieces

Ai ka përdorur një sërë materialesh në instalimet dhe veprat e tij konceptuale të artit, nga qeramika, druri dhe porcelani te filmi, fotografia dhe objektet e gjetura. Në fund të viteve 2000, artisti dhe aktivisti shtoi tullat Lego në repertorin e tij. Këto vepra shumëngjyrëshe dhe të përpikta përfshijnë qindra portrete të të burgosurve politikë dhe të internuarve, të krijuara nga Ai për një ekspozitë të vitit 2014.

Weiwei recreates Monet's water lilies using 650,000 Lego pieces

The following year, the artist made headlines when Lego rejected his studio's request for a large order of bricks for a new project, a move he described as "censorship" (the Danish company later reversed its decision). . During the controversy, Ai's fans and members of the public sent him their own Lego blocks, and these donated bricks will also be featured in his new London show in an installation called Untitled (Lego Incident).

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