Remembrance

Today I was at the exhibition of Ai Weiwei's work at the Royal Academy. If you are in London before December 15th, GO! It is breathtaking.

This work, called "Straight", impressed me most. It commemorates the 5,000 schoolchildren killed in the Sichuan earthquake of May 2008. The work comprises 150 tons of steel rebar from schools which collapsed in the quake and which was destined for recycling. Weiwei retrieved the mangled bars and they were straightened by hand, each one being hit by a hammer over 200 times.

Weiwei was part of a citizens' investigation into the quake and the possible substandard school buildings. Names of the children who died were collected and these are displayed on the walls behind the bars.

The whole work is as sombre as any war memorial and the exhibition as a whole is a stark reminder that freedom of speech is not to be taken for granted.

"The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay. " Ai Weiwei