The story behind the buttons
For Ai Weiwei, buttons have evolved into a potent symbol of identity, power, and resistance
For Ai Weiwei, button have a deep history and meaning. Growing up, buttons were precious objects, only owning one pair of trousers losing one button was a disaster.
Growing up, I experienced extreme material scarcity, with only one pair of trousers and one pair of shoes. If a button fell off, it was a great loss as it was extremely challenging to find a replacement.
Ai Weiwei
During his 81 days of secret detention in 2011 his own button fell off, and forbidden to look at his guards' faces, he stared at the gold ones on their uniforms instead. He has worked with them ever since: Button, an edition of 250 army buttons cast in gold for Kettle's Yard, Eight-Nation Alliance Flags, sewn from four million rescued from a closing Croydon factory, and Sewing a Button, a 24 hour performance staged inside a rebuilt cell.
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