Ai Weiwei's teahouses

[iGo]

On display at the Brooklyn Museum:

Teahouse, 2011
Compressed and loose tea
Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio

These three sculptural forms are made from solid blocks
of Pu'er tea grown and harvested in southwest China.
Fermented and aged using tradition methods, the tea
as been compressed and molded into the shape of
houses, which are surrounded by a field of loose tea
leaves. Each house weighs more than a ton. Though you
cannot go inside, each house could be seen as having
imaginary tearooms. The tearoom constituted the social
center of traditional Chinese culture.

[tingjunkie]

Each house weighs more than a ton.

Must be some funky perspective going on in that photo. To me they don't look any bigger than about 3 feet tall. Talk about iron cake compression!

[drinking_teas]

some crazed pu'erh aficionado is gonna break in and start picking away at it... it's going to be the Ai Weiwei vase drama all over again.

[bonescwa]

^ Sounds like something I would do

[apache]

This intrigued me, found a close up pic of the loose leaves.

http://brendanhoffman.photoshelter.com/ ... 5ORbNINzGY

It looks like sheng and is a bit too green for drinking now and I would give it another 50 years.

[shah82]

beware of witches and ovens inside, though.

[fdrx]

There's a big 2006 puer brick like that at the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum.
http://bit.ly/1ANqZBh

[chrl42]

Ai Wei-wei?

A fat performance artist? (who likes to be naked)

[iGo]

Sir, your comment says more about you than Mr. Ai.

[chrl42]

Sir, your comment says more about you than Mr. Ai.

He's a pretty controversial guy because he defies the system of China by being naked...human rights activist he is.

Anyone who's read news in China might know him.


I asked because he seems very unpredictable guy like a rugby ball

[Drax]

Wei cool? Or Weiwei cool!

Ha!

They kind of remind me of those single serve mini tuos. You know. Except for giants.

[Poseidon]

If it didnt piss everyone off, Id like to toss one in a pool and swim in the puerh broth.... Its been a long monday so far...

[Cwyn]

Thanks for posting this, so cool. There is a documentary film about Ai Weiwei, I saw it on Netflix, well worth watching.

[Poseidon]

Thanks for posting this, so cool. There is a documentary film about Ai Weiwei, I saw it on Netflix, well worth watching.

What is that documentary called?

[Cwyn]

It is called Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry. Pretty sure it is still on Netflix. On the film you can see he does an exhibition of a floor covered with rice, in the same way the floor here is covered in tea.