To meet demand for tickets, the Royal Academy of Arts, London, is extending its opening hours during the final four weekends of Ai Weiwei, with special viewings until midnight on selected Saturdays and for the first time in the RA’s history, a 56-hour, round-the-clock opening for the final weekend.
Ai Weiwei will be open from 10am until midnight on: Saturday 21 November Saturday 28 November Saturday 5 December Final weekend opening times: Open from 10am on Friday 11 December until 6pm Sunday 13 December.
Grapes (2010) made using traditional Chinese wooden stools. Everyday objects repurposed as art
Straight, 2008–12 Following the devastating earthquake in Sichuan in 2008, Ai collected under cover some two hundred tonnes of bent and twisted rebar (the steel rods used in the construction of reinforced concrete buildings) destined for recycling which he transported to his studio in Beijing. Here it was straightened by hand into a moving monument to the victims.
