Artist: Ai Weiwei
Year: 2018
Medium: CNC-cut vinyl
Measurement: 17 x 48 inches
Ai Weiwei created Banner 90 from an image taken during a visit to the Shariya Camp in Iraq, where displaced Christian, Yezidi, Shi'a Turcomen, Arab, and Shabak ethnic minority communities and religious groups have been forced to flee after being targeted by ISIS. His studio's surveys and portraits of more than 400 people at the Shariya camp marked the beginning of Ai's deeper involvement with the global humanitarian crisis. With the ability to travel restored, following his repression as an artist and activist in China, Ai has become increasingly involved in raising awareness for this crisis.
Public Art Fund will make a donation to USA for UNHCR to support the vital work of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as well to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in recognition of their work supporting displaced people. The edition will also support Public Art Fund's mission to provide democratic access to contemporary art by today's most important artists, as well as a catalogue about Ai Weiwei's recent exhibition.
The original banner was on view in Manhattan on Chrystie Street between Rivington & Stanton Streets.
From October 2017 to February 2018, Public Art Fund presented Ai Weiwei's Good Fences Make Good Neighbors in all five boroughs of New York City. Inspired by the international migration crisis and current global geopolitical landscape, the exhibition transformed the security fence into a powerful social and artistic symbol. With over 300 artworks, the interventions grew out of the existing urban infrastructure, using the fabric of the city as its base and drawing attention to the role of the fence in dividing people. The exhibition included 200 individually numbered portraits of immigrants and refugees, from the nineteenth century to today, installed on lampposts across the city. Ai transformed these vinyl banners, traditionally used for advertising, into captivating works of art. He adapted historic photographs from Ellis Island, images of famous refugees, and his own contemporary portraits taken with his studio on their global travels to 40 refugee camps. Rather than printing them like conventional banner ads, each image was laser cut from industrial black vinyl, using the negative space to create a bold, two-sided image.
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