Ai Weiwei is Building 100 Fences Around New York City

Provocative artist Ai Weiwei will be installing 100 fences around New York City, all by the end of 2017.

Photo: New York Times

Titled “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors”, Ai Weiwei’s ambitious installation will see him build 100 fences across New York City.

The project, commissioned to commemorate the Public Art Fund’s 40^th anniversary, is inspired by Ai’s observations of the “retreat from the essential attitude of openness” he has witnessed in American politics in recent times. The title of the exhibition is a reference to a Robert Frost poem, “Mending Wall.”

“When the Berlin Wall fell, there were 11 countries with border fences and walls,” Ai told the New York Times. “By 2016, that number had increased to 70. We are witnessing a rise in nationalism, an increase in the closure of borders, and an exclusionary attitude towards migrants and refugees, the victims of war and the casualties of globalization.”

The fences will be located in boroughs such as Queens and Manhattan. The installation is slated for completed by October 12, 2017.