"Forever Bicycles" by Ai Weiwei

"Forever Bicycles" by Ai Weiwei

Located on the berm by CN Field at The Forks, Forever Bicycles is a monumental public art installation created by internationally acclaimed artist and activist Ai Weiwei. This archway of 1,266 bicycle frames is reminiscent of the traditional Chinese paifang or commemorative gate found in Chinatowns around the world. The artwork is made up of a seemingly endless arrangement of wheels, spokes, and bicycle frames. In the title, “forever” is both a nod to the brand of bicycles that flooded China’s streets as a popular means of transportation, and to the optical illusion of movement and infinite depth that appears to go on forever as one looks at the mesmerizing array against the prairie sky. 

About Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) is an artist who currently resides and works in multiple locations, including Beijing (China), Berlin (Germany), Cambridge (UK) and Lisbon (Portugal).

His father, the poet Ai Qing, was denounced by China’s Communist Party in 1958 and his family was sent to labour camps, first near the North Korean border and then eventually in Xinjiang province. They returned to Beijing in 1976 after the end of the Cultural Revolution. Ai studied animation at the Beijing Film Academy, then studied art in New York in the early 1980s. Upon returning to China a decade later, Ai advocated for experimental artists by publishing underground books and curating avant-garde exhibitions. Ai’s artworks are often ambitious in both scale and scope and engage directly with contemporary geopolitics: from global issues of human rights violations to the realities of exile and dislocation, to government corruption and the abuses of power. He is an outspoken advocate of human rights and freedom of speech. He was the recipient of the Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent in 2012 and of the Amnesty International Ambassador of Conscience Award in 2015.

About the National Gallery of Canada

Forever Bicycles was previously displayed at The Forks from 2019 to 2022 and returns through a 10-year partnership with the National Gallery of Canada.

The National Gallery of Canada (NGC) is dedicated to amplifying voices through art and extending the reach and breadth of its collection, exhibitions program, and public activities to represent all Canadians, while centring Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Ankosé—an Anishinaabemowin word that means “everything is connected”—reflects the Gallery’s mission to create dynamic experiences that open hearts and minds, and allow for new ways of seeing ourselves, one another, and our diverse histories, through the visual arts. NGC is home to a rich contemporary Indigenous international art collection, as well as important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian and European art from the 14th to the 21st century. Founded in 1880, NGC has played a key role in Canadian culture for more than 140 years.

Back