15th Biennale of Sydney: Zones of Contact

Alix:
Not a review of the WHOLE exhibition. Again just something that stood out too me. Thats what this blogging things all about right?

So I was flicking through Art Monthly and in it's summary of exhibitions that were on at the time I came across 15th Biennale of Sydney in huge bold letters, which already got me reading further. That was until I saw the work of Aei Weiwei. I thought the way this Asian man was feeling these layers of fabric was a bit strange. They didn't really look like anything at all. Just like scraps of fabric used in possibly the mass production of t-shirts and pants. Nope. I was pretty wrong.

Intrigued by this image I decided to find out what the title was. It could give me an insight into what Weiwei was thinking about when he decided to go down this path. The title of the piece is called "World Map". And suddenly the image was no longer rougly cut out layers of fabric. But it was a map of the world. The layering intended to give it the illusion of the coast lines. He has cut out each country/continent in huge detail. It's exactly how you would picture it in an atlas.

Weiwei's work hints at Chinas mass production of clothing for it's own people and to the world. Using fabric instead of another material puts this message across succesfully, and also looks sort of comftable. I wouldn't wear it.But depending how big the continent of Africa is.. I might just sleep on it.

(Art Monthly, Jul-Aug 06
Page 24-25)

(again I couldn't find a picture of this on the net)