00:18

square yellow and white print on a mirrored substrate

Ai Weiwei

Human Flow

€1,250

Artwork

Edition of 100

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Human Flow belongs to a trio of artworks by Ai Weiwei which combine innovative printing methods with pillars of freedom upheld throughout his practice.

Figures in motion, laden with bags, move in an endless circle at the centre of the print. Razor wire surrounds them. CCTV cameras look on ominously. Ai reflects on the importance of a person’s liberty to move, and the forms of persecution that may lead them to do so. Opaque layers of white and yellow ink are applied to a mirrored aluminium substrate – subsuming onlooker and artwork in the reflective surface.

“If there is one refugee, we are all refugees. It's not that you're potentially a refugee, or potentially involved. We are involved. We are refugees. This idea is not easy to establish, so I tried to make it beautiful. You can see the image, but you can also see yourself in the reflection.”

Go behind the scenes at Make-Ready in London as Ai reflects on the profundities of printmaking, and its lineage within his practice.

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06:12

Behind the scenes

artist Ai Weiwei taking a selfie in a bathroom mirror

Ai Weiwei27 collaborationsAi Weiwei is unafraid to speak truth to power. He’s one of the most famous living artists today – a testament to the breadth and vision of his practice. Effortlessly, he moves between different media, from sculpture and architecture to performance and documentary film. His work is often monumental in scale and is driven by a hunger for truth and justice. In 2008, for example, Ai spent many months collecting the names of over 5000 children who lost their lives in the Sichuan earthquake. This unflinching dedication to human rights saw him detained by the Chinese government for 81 days in 2011, accused of ‘subverting the state.’

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