Ai Weiwei stayed away from the press view of his Royal Academy of Arts show yesterday morning (15 September), apparently preferring to let his work do the talking. But he was very much in evidence at last night’s packed opening party, accompanied by his partner Wang Fen and son Ai Lao. Ai remained remarkably good humoured as hordes of eager well-wishers threatened to swamp the family trio—although he did take the precaution of lifting Ai Lao aloft when the crowd surges got too overwhelming. It would certainly have been a very different event if the RA had stuck to its original plan to have an autumn show celebrating the Battle of Waterloo.
But while spirits were high, everyone else involved with the show was looking a tad frazzled, with the RA’s artistic director Tim Marlow, who had also instigated and co-organised the exhibition, confiding that over the past few days he had increasingly felt like a (benign) bodyguard. And especially during a recent lunchtime visit to Chinatown where the artist was hailed as a hero by his excited countrymen and constantly mobbed for autographs and handshakes.
Ai’s assistants were also feeling the strain as, apparently, the main thing the newly liberated and indefatigable artist has wanted to do—when not fine tuning his works at the RA—is to stride through the capital’s streets. His lengthy and brisk-paced perambulations have been hard to keep up with. Let’s see how Anish Kapoor copes on Thursday morning when he joins forces with his high-energy friend for a joint seven-mile walk from the RA to east London to mark the refugee crisis…