Ai Weiwei Gives Vancouver Some Serious Grass

(Vancouver Biennale)

As part of the successful Vancouver Biennale (think Brazilian artists OSGEMEOS’stransformation of concrete silos into spectacular, colourful characters and Jonathan Borofsky’s 24-foot-high artwork Human Structures), the Chinese contemporary artist and activist (outspoken against the Chinese government’s stance on democratic rights and freedoms, Ai Weiwei has seen the inside of a Chinese lockup and makes Chinese officials of all statures and departments shudder when he clears his throat to speak) has created the new sculpture F Grass. 

Made specifically for the Vancouver Biennale and for the Harbour Green Park setting, the piece is made up of well over 3,000 cast-iron blades of grass (tallest seven inches) that cover a 13.5 metre-by-13.5 metre space and are arranged in the shape of a large calligraphic F. 

Harbour Park Green is located at 1199 Cordova St. just above Coal Harbour. Art fans and those who like to censor art remember the park as being home to the wonderful (for those in the former category, of course) inverted, steel church sculpture called the Device to Root Out Evil by Dennis Oppenheim. 

F Grass, which is an extension of Ai Weiwei’s iconic Sunflower Seeds (that were literally spread out for the Tate Modern in 2010), will remain at Harbour Green Park for 12 months.

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