Over the weekend, beloved Chinese artist Ai Weiwei published a flurry of Instagram posts slamming The Lego Group for refusing to sell him a bulk order for a new exhibit in Australia. The public reaction was overwhelming and supportive of the artist, with many fans offering Weiwei their own (often sizable) Lego collections to use instead. Yesterday, Weiwei announced that he'd take them up on their offers with soon-to-be-announced Lego collection points, and that their bricks would be used in an artwork designed "to defend freedom of speech and 'political art.'"A photo posted by Ai Weiwei (@aiww) on Oct 24, 2015 at 3:22pm PDT
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The art world has been slowly adopting Lego-as-medium over the last few years, in part thanks to Weiwei's work. Late last year, his show @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz turned Alcatraz into an art gallery with Lego portraits of international dissidents. Danish and Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson staged an interactive architecture exhibit on the High Line this summer which involved breaking down and rebuilding the New York City skyline with Lego bricks. Artist Mike Doyle used Legos to protest the war in Iraq. Ivan Lardschneider references the bricks in his emotionally-fraught sculpture I Shoot Myself, while Nathan Sawada uses them to sculpt a distorted vision of humanity, and Jan Vormann fills in crumbling architecture with the colorful toys. So, what's Lego's reason for the sudden blockage?A photo posted by Ai Weiwei (@aiww) on Oct 23, 2015 at 6:04am PDT
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After his Instagram and Twitter follwers began offering their own Legos for the project with the hashtag #LegosForWeiwei, the artist accepted, announcing that he'll establish collection sites across the world. This morning he posted a picture of a red car captioned, "The first Lego container." According to Instagram, this is just the first phase of projects inspired by the events, and Weiwei isn't known for going easy on institutions he holds accountable.Lego is giving us the definition of what is "political",and all the big corporations are telling us what to love or hate. that awesome.
— 艾未未 Ai Weiwei (@aiww) October 25, 2015
A photo posted by Ai Weiwei (@aiww) on Oct 25, 2015 at 11:01pm PDT
A photo posted by Ai Weiwei (@aiww) on Oct 25, 2015 at 11:04pm PDT
A photo posted by Ai Weiwei (@aiww) on Oct 25, 2015 at 11:06pm PDT
A photo posted by Ai Weiwei (@aiww) on Oct 25, 2015 at 10:37am PDT
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See more of Ai Weiwei's work on his website, and in our previous coverage below.Related:Insta of the Week: Julian Assange Flips the Bird with Ai Weiwei[Exclusive] Ai Weiwei says Twitter is ArtMake Your Mark On The Moon With Olafur Eliasson and Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei on the Perils of Nuclear PowerA photo posted by Ai Weiwei (@aiww) on Oct 14, 2015 at 7:10pm PDT