“Trace” is a portrait series of 176 people from around the world who have been imprisoned or exiled because of their beliefs or affiliations. This gallery includes a selection of portraits of individuals detained or persecuted by China’s government.
Each likeness was built by hand from LEGO bricks. These images are the artist’s rendering of the work. For-Site, the foundation that granted Ai Wei Wei a residency to develop this work, writes: “Assembling a multitude of small parts into a vast and complex whole, the work may bring to mind the relationship between the individual and the collective, a central dynamic in any society and a particularly charged one in contemporary China.”
Ai selected these individuals based on information provided by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, as well as independent research by the artist’s studio and the For-Site Foundation.
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