Location: The Chapter House
Ai Weiwei’s extraordinary work incorporating 61 antique chandeliers will be installed in Durham Cathedral’s 11th century Chapter House.
First created by the acclaimed Chinese artist in 2018, the immense structure will be shown for the first time in the UK. The artwork was inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s readymade, Bottle Rack, and uses the ordinary structure of an enormous, upside-down bottle rack as its chandelier branches. The chandeliers encapsulate the essence of bourgeois existence and domestic life during the late 19th and early 20th centuries while evoking a sense of the period’s opulence and aesthetics. Ai Weiwei comments on the unfamiliarity of these lifestyles by intertwining them to form an even grander chandelier.
This installation will be open for extended hours during Lumiere: from 10:00–15:30 during the day, and 16:30–23:00 in the evening. On Sunday 19 October, installation is open from 12:00 – 14:00, and 16:30–23:00 in the evening.
Please note, last admission to Cathedral installations is 22:30.
About Ai Weiwei
A global citizen, artist and thinker, Ai Weiwei moves between modes of production and investigation, subject to the direction and outcome of his research, whether into the Chinese earthquake of 2008 (for works such as Straight, 2008-12 and Remembering, 2009) or the worldwide plight of refugees and forced migrants (for Law of the Journey and his feature-length documentary, Human Flow, both 2017). From early iconoclastic positions in regards to authority and history, which included Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn and a series of middle-finger salutes to sites of power, Study of Perspective (both 1995), Ai’s production expanded to encompass architecture, public art and performance. Beyond concerns of form or protest, Ai now measures our existence in relation to economic, political, natural and social forces, uniting craftsmanship with conceptual creativity. Universal symbols of humanity and community, such as bicycles, flowers and trees, as well as the perennial problems of borders and conflicts are given renewed potency through installations, sculptures, films and photographs, while Ai continues to speak out publicly on issues he believes important. He is one of the leading cultural figures of his generation and serves as an example for free expression both in China and internationally.