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AI WEIWEI A TREE
2017–2019
In March 2015, Brazilian curator Marcello Dantas visited Ai Weiwei in Beijing and invited him to hold a series of solo exhibitions in South America from 2017 to 2018. The Chinese government had not returned Ai Weiwei’s passport at the time. Ai Weiwei accepted the invitation and decided to create a series of new works. In July of the same year, Ai Weiwei retrieved his confiscated passport and proceeded to prepare for the exhibition.
In 2017, Ai Weiwei visited South America several times for survey and research. He became interested in the rich nature of Brazil. Eventually the team located a Pequi tree deep in the forest reserve of Trancoso, Bahia, in eastern Brazil. Ai decided to mold the tree in situ.
The tree is thirty-one meters high, about 1,200 years old. Some parts have withered, with a few living twigs on top.
Ai Weiwei led a team of 11 people from China and arrived in Trancoso on February 18, 2018. With the help of a dozen local workers, they began molding the tree.
The team first cleaned up the on-site debris, exposing the root. At the same time, they designed and constructed scaffolding, then removed the parasitic plants to reveal the entire tree.
To start the molding process, the surface of the tree is cleaned, and release agent was sprayed from bottom to top. Three layers of silica gel are applied afterwards, with aluminum mesh inserted after the second layer.
The aluminum mesh divides a large single mold into smaller pieces. Fiberglass is then applied to strengthen the molds. To prevent displacement, silicon knobs are attached to the individual molds as anchor points. Before the second layer of fiberglass dries out, patches are laid on top. Followed by a thinner layer of fiberglass, this process requires a total of four to five applications.
When this is done, metal square tubes are fixed onto the fiberglass as reinforcement. All numbering work and position maps are completed at this time. Finally, the molds are removed. The silicone and gypsum blocks are removed and arranged in strict accordance with the coordinates. Any tree bark attached
to the molds is thoroughly cleaned.
The edges of the fiberglass backing need to be trimmed, so the adjacent
modules can connect during casting. The blocks are then packed with EPE and a baler, to be loaded onto containers for transportation. The molding project was completed on July 5, 2018, lasting 137 days. The total production area is up to 428 square meters, divided into 768 block molds, and the total weight is about 12.8 tons. The molds filled three containers and were shipped to China for iron casting.