This fall, Ai Weiwei will realize a new work in the Ukraine about the country’s ongoing war with Russia.
Titled Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White, the work will be on view at Pavilion 13, a Soviet-era exhibition space in Kyiv, from September 14 to November 30. The site-specific work is commissioned by Ribbon International, a nonprofit focused on supporting contemporary and historic Ukrainian art and culture.
“In this era, being invited to hold an exhibition in Kyiv, the capital of a country at war, I hope to express certain ideas and reflections through my work,” Ai said in a statement. “My artworks are not merely an aesthetic expression but also a reflection of my position as an individual navigating immense political shifts, international hegemonies, and conflicts. This exhibition provides a platform to articulate these concerns. At its core, this exhibition is a dialogue about war and peace, rationality and irrationality.”
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According to the release, the work will resemble the sphere-like icosahedron sculptures of his “Divina Proportione” series (2004–12), which was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s mathematic illustrations. A 2006 edition was made of sought-after huanghuali wood, with one version now belonging to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and another coming to auction in 2022.
For the Kyiv presentation, Ai will exhibit three of these works, which will be made of metal and encased in a modified camouflage fabric that will include animal motifs. The fabric will then be “painted over in thin white paint, a second layer of camouflage,” according to a release.
“Of course, whenever you cover something there’s still something underneath,” Ai’s statement continues. “So I give extra meaning to how we’re dealing with reality and which layer of reality we’re dealing with. And is reality just what are we seeing or what we understand?”
Ai is currently the subject of a retrospective, “Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei,” at the Seattle Art Museum. In a review for Art in America, critic Louis Bury wrote that the exhibition “holds a mirror up to recent liberal paradigms of political art, and unwittingly suggests their symbolism is in part compensatory, offering an aesthetic outlet for feelings of powerlessness.”