aiwei wei: baby formula at michael janssen singapore

aiwei wei: baby formula – responding to china’s 2008 melamine milk scandal, when thousands of children who consumed tainted milk fell ill –some even fatally — chinese artist ai weiwei makes a creative statement about the tragedy through his installation ‘baby formula’. the catastrophe personally affected weiwei, whose son was 4 years old at the time. translating the misfortune into an immersive artwork, weiwei constructs an abstracted map comprised of 1,800 cans of baby formula which are arranged as an 860 square-foot map of china. the carefully placed, color coordinated cans lay silently on the exhibition floor at the michael janssen in singapore, forcing the audience to understand their context.

‘baby formula’ installation by ai weiwei
image courtesy of michael janssen singapore 

‘baby formula’ installation view
image courtesy of michael janssen singapore

‘baby formula’ installation view, showing the full arrangement of the cans as a map of china
image courtesy of michael janssen singapore

‘baby formula’ installation view, detail of part of the map
image courtesy of michael janssen singapore

‘baby formula’ installation view, detail
image courtesy of michael janssen singapore

a pictographic representation of the arrangement of the baby formula cans