Detail: This exhibition features prolific Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's monumental installation
Fragments (2005). Noting the abundance of antique wood on the market, Ai had a number of
pieces transported from Guangdong to his studio in Beijing to create a series of objects
and installations. Fragments is a culmination of that body of work. Working with a team
of skilled carpenters, Ai turned pillars and beams of ironwood (or tieli) salvaged from
several dismantled Qing dynasty temples into a large-scale, seemingly chaotic work, which
he calls an "irrational structure." Yet examined more closely, one discovers that the
installation is an elaborate system of masterful joinery and delicate balance relations.
Seen from above, the entire complex is anchored by poles marking out the borders of a map
of China. Through his simultaneously destructive and creative process, Ai highlights the
bewildering reality that we live in the midst of a world undergoing rapid spatial and
social transformations. Perspectives: Ai Weiwei is presented concurrently with a
retrospective of Ai Weiwei's works at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture
Garden.