One is greeted by the first exhibit in the Courtyard. A cluster of eight trees, assembled from pieces of trees from all over China. like the entire exhibition, this piece is conceptual, illustrating the dead hand of uniformity that extends across the country.
The exhibition itself also benefits greatly from explanation. For example, it would be hard to appreciate the vast collection of steel rods (even though they are pleasingly laid out) without being told they were recovered and straightened from shoddily-constructed buildings in Sichuan that were demolished by an earthquake.
Other items were more playful, such as the table that had been cut in two and re-assembled so that now legs engaged the wall as well as the floor, rendering it useless.
All the work embodied the Wei Wei signature meticulous craftsmanship. He is a big employer of traditional craftsmen - as I remember from a film that accompanied his poppy seed installation at Tate.
All in all, this is a fine exhibition and one that will repay more than one visit - though in a very different way to a less conceptual body of work.
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