A Heartbreaking Exhibition of Staggering Mediocrity. Al Weiwei: According To What? The Brooklyn Museum.

Its not very easy for me to knock a fellow artist, to criticize what they do, but I have to say that I don’t have many good things to say about this sprawling and very uneven exhibition by this Chinese artist who is a big art world darling and is respected by many for his political actions. I went with an open mind and a borrowed pass (the Brooklyn Museum is now outrageously charging fees for exhibitions that they deem are “special” which I find appalling especially since I don’t find this exhibition very special) with the hope that I would change my mind about his art, but I didn’t. True I didn’t go screaming from the show in abject disgust but I found most of his stuff uninteresting and problematic. There is of course that big political elephant in the room, and while I can certainly admire and respect his human rights views and actions I find much of his work that is properly political to be really about him. I mean do I really need to view on a large wall his brain scans that he had for an emergency brain operation? The show begins with some of his early work that includes a few terrible homage’s to Duchamp including one with what looks like a used condom attached to a robe, and a silly profile portrait of that great artist made from a hanger. In the same room are some large expensive looking works made from wood, that ask for audience participation and some twisted and pulled tables from the Qing dynasty, these are not bad, but the many black and white snap shots  from his stay in New York City in the early 80’s and his life in China that line two walls offer no interest at all, plus there are way too many of them. Mr. WeiWei shares an aesthetic idea with many others artists who think that more is never enough and this notion is played out in much of his work presented in this over blown show. One installation that fills a large space right off the lobby is made up of 100’s of stainless steal bicycle frames that are nothing more than expensive toys for the rich and while impressive because of the amount of them I found them to be an empty gesture. He also likes to fill up walls with lots of images usually photographs. Not a drawing is to be found in the show, probably because he has all his work fabricated and/or made by his assistants or he simply has no feel or talent for putting images made by himself on paper or canvas Another troubling work for me was his installation “Ye Haiyan’s Belongings” which is a large narrative piece using 100’s of nice small color images of her belongs that line the 4 walls of a big gallery along with an actual bicycle, appliances and some battered suitcases and cardboard boxes of what we are suppose to think are some of  her actual belongings but only work as cheap props. This work by him was made again by his helpers to document the Chinese governments mistreatment of Ye Haiyan and her daughter for Ye Haiyan’s political and human rights actions. They harmed them by constantly evicting them and their meager processions from home after home, and finally dumping them on the side of a road. Weiwei helped out by giving financial aid but then made their life of despair into this weak work, taking a terrible situation and using it to boost his own career. His other attempts at sculptures are also meager, an early ready made that he did in his time in New York is especially bad.  Also miserable are his infamous Han dynstery vases that he painted over and are accompanied by those large photos of him dropping several of them to prove no doubt how little he cares for material things and were in the news a few months ago when an artist in Florida took it upon himself to break one himself that were on exhibit at the  Pérez Art Museum to protest what he called “the museum’s focus on international artists at the expense of local talent.”   These vases are disappointing as ready made objects with their paltry streaks of paint running down their sides and so is a vase that has a Coca Cola logo painted on it, which is juvenile and derivative.  There are other large installations that also fail for me and don’t work on their own without labels explaining what they are about. The only work hat I really liked as a piece of sculpture is his large work called “Straight” which fills an entire gallery and is made of tons of reinforced steel that was collected from the schools that were destroyed in the Sichuan earthquake and straightened out to form a vast minimal wave like piece that covers the floor of the gallery and which one walks around, very nice Weiwei.  This is another emperor without clothes (check out the many nude photos of himself on line and who actually calls his studio “Fake.” Very telling Mr. Weiwei.  At The Brooklyn Museum until August 10^th.