Preview of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's Royal Academy show | Editor's Pick | 15 Sept 15

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• published: 23 Sep 2015
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A new exhibition by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei is opening at London's Royal Academy of Arts. The exhibition, which is Ai's first extensive installation in the U.K., includes significant works by the artist - world famous for pieces addressing human rights abuses, official corruption and the collision between Chinese culture and Western consumerism - from 1993 onwards. Ai, who has been incarcerated in the past and had his passport seized for more than four years by the Chinese government, is currently in London ahead of the exhibition's opening. However, he was unable to travel to Britain for the early stages of the installation. "He didn't have a passport until four weeks ago," said Tim Marlow, Artistic Director Royal Academy of Arts and co-curator of the exhibition. "We made eight visits between us to see him in Beijing, we communicated by email and phone, as well. He came for just under the last third of the installation period - just over a week - and made very tiny tweaks," he added. For Marlow, what makes the show even more poignant and powerful is the fact that Ai is able to see it. "This is the first show he's seen of nearly a hundred he's made in the last five years. But, he would have been here in spirit whether he was here bodily or not," he said. At a press conference in London on Friday, Ai suggested that Chinese officials may be loosening their attitudes toward him and said the fact that the Chinese government allowed him to travel to Germany, where his young son lives, and to Britain, indicates more acceptance of his work. Marlow said he hopes Ai's new found freedom to travel will allow the artist to take his career to the next level. "I think, if you look at the number of exhibitions he's made in the last few years, he's already amongst the most celebrated and important of contemporary artists in the world. I think the fact he can travel now, I think it adds another dimension to what he does," he said. "I'd imagine that, after five years without a passport, at the end of a period of incarceration as well - 81 days in prison - I'd imagine that this is the next stage of his career just beginning. I wouldn't claim that this exhibition will take his career to the next level - I think whatever level he's got to go to, he's pretty close to anyway." The Ai Weiwei exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts opens to the public on September 19th and runs until December 13th. Among the items on display are a pair of jade handcuffs, a 2,000-year-old vase painted with the Coca-Cola logo and a surveillance camera carved from white marble - from the same quarry that supplied Chairman Mao Zedong's mausoleum. Find out more about AP Archive: http://tinyurl.com/neh3pb4 Story number for this item is: 2074494