Ai Weiwei Will Install Over 100 Fences Around New York City This Fall

This fall, the renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei will install more than 100 wire fences in various sites around New York City in conjunction with Public Art Fund's 40th anniversary. In its announcement of the project, titled Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, Public Art Fund said Ai was "inspired by the international migration crisis and tense sociopolitical battles surrounding the issue in the United States and worldwide." 

"I was an immigrant in New York in the 1980s for ten years, and the issue with the migration crisis has been a longtime focus of my practice," Ai said in a press release. "The fence has always been a tool in the vocabulary of political landscaping and evokes associations with words like 'border,' 'security,' and 'neighbor,' which are connected to the current global political environment. But what's important to remember is that while barriers have been used to divide us, as humans we are all the same." 

Ai's fences will appear in both conventional sites, like Doris C. Freedman Plaza at the southeast corner of Central Park and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, and in unexpected locales, like rooftops and the spaces between buildings. At least one installation will go up at JCDecaux bus shelters in Brooklyn. Public Art Fund says Good Neighbors is meant to emphasize locations that are significant in the story of New York City as a hub for immigration and cultural exchange.

"Given that the immigrant experience is at the core of what binds us as New Yorkers," said First Lady Chirlane McCray in a statement, "the exhibition compels us to question the rhetoric and policies that seek to divide us."

The installation goes up on October 12, 2017, and runs through February 11, 2018.