Hong Kong’s M+ to display work by dissident mainland Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, but curator insists no political message involved
- Ai’s A Ton of Tea, a cube-shaped sculpture of tea leaves and wood, was created to highlight the drink’s major role in Chinese culture
- Curator Wu Mo says ‘Another Story’ exhibition designed to feature quality in modern Chinese art
A single artwork by dissident mainland Chinese artist Ai Weiwei will be shown as part of a contemporary art exhibition focused on the country at Hong Kong’s M+ museum from Friday.
The work, A Ton of Tea, is a cube-shaped sculpture made of Puer tea leaves and wood created to highlight “how important tea is in Chinese people’s lives”, M+ curator Wu Mo said.
But Wu stressed the sculpture was not intended to push a political viewpoint.
“It’s quite a common interpretation … when seeing a work of contemporary Chinese art [that] it’s always connected or attached to a sociopolitical context,” Wu said. “But this is not the key point of our show.”
She explained the exhibition, called “Another Story”, was designed to showcase a new curatorial approach at the museum which emphasised visual language and quality in contemporary Chinese art.
