Ai Weiwei
June 2017 – May 2018
Waller Creek at Lady Bird Lake
Presented in partnership with The Contemporary Austin, Forever Bicycles (2014) consists of over 1,200 bicycles transformed into a playful, spectacular monolith of a sculpture. The title, Forever Bicycles, alludes to the Forever brand (Yongjiu) – a company based in Shanghai whose mass-produced bicycles flooded the streets of China during the artist’s childhood yet remained financially out of reach for many – but also suggests a globally utilitarian form of transport now disappearing as car culture becomes predominant. The conceptual premise of this series consists of several to thousands of bicycles assembled into a composition.