Blossom

In this work, Ai Weiwei quietly transformed the utilitarian fixtures in several Hospital ward cells and medical offices into delicate porcelain bouquets. The artist designed intricately detailed encrustations of ceramic flowers to fill the sinks, toilets, and tubs that were once used by hospitalized prisoners.

Like With Wind in the New Industries Building, Blossom drew on and altered natural imagery as well as traditional Chinese arts. Rather than referring to national iconography, however, the flowers here carried other associations. The work could have been seen as symbolically offering comfort to the imprisoned, as one would send a bouquet to a hospitalized patient. The profusion of flowers rendered in a cool and brittle material could also have been an ironic reference to China’s famous Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956, a brief period of government tolerance for free expression that was immediately followed by a severe crackdown against dissent.