‘River Crab’ and ‘Grass Mud Horse’: Ai Weiwei’s “Windows”
Chinese lanterns, raised middle fingers, a surveillance camera and Chinese passport -- images of written Mandarin characters made of bamboo and silk cast shadows on the Marciano Art Foundation’s walls in the crammed lower level gallery dedicated to Ai Wei Wei’s installation Windows (2015).
What would my mother think?
Whereas I see coded messages and Ai’s subterfuge, I imagined my mother, who lived most of her adult life in Beijing -- where I was born as well, living there until I was seven before moving to Vancouver, Canada — taking these shadowed objects for exactly what they depict: lantern, hand, and texts....
