Ai Weiwei "Fairytale Chairs" At The Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Ai Wiewie's Fairytale Chairs
Yorkshire Sculpture Park 2007

The fairy tale chairs are an installation of five rows of nine chairs from the Qing Dynasty. Although the chairs are in a mass, they are each spaced apart to give a feeling of isolation and reflect Ai's interest of relationship of the mass and the individual.

They are there to give the sitter the feeling of the history of the chair and it's surroundings such as who could have sat on in what type of place.

My first impression was that the chairs reminded me of a group of people from all walks of life because of their different shapes and sizes. I too also felt lonely or isolated when I sat down and looked around the room. It also occured to me the many hundreds if not thousands of people whom may have sat on these chairs in the past.

Overall the experience was good , I got the feeling that I understood what Ai type of message or emotion Ai was trying to give out and for me, was one of the highlights of the visit.