Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Provisional Landscapes
Ai Weiwei Chinese
Not on view
This trio of images presents a gridlike expanse of low brick buildings that were perhaps old barracks, a power plant dominated by smokestacks and cooling towers, and new residential towers looming over naked trees and razed houses.
Part of a large series recorded between 2002 and 2008, when Beijing was radically transformed in anticipation of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, these images vividly document the wholesale transformation of China’s landscape by juxtaposing modern structures with older buildings being demolished. These landscapes are “provisional” because they are in transition. Photographed in winter, the leafless trees, gray skies, and absence of people intensify the sense of stark desolation.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.