We went to an exhibition yesterday. In Kensington. Which is dead posh, obviously. We walked through Holland Park to get there and you can’t get posher than that. Its where Rishi Sunak lives, ffs, so you know there’s money around. Not in the park though which, although really beautiful, was full of Russians and Poles and Koreans and Albanians pushing babies round in buggies, dressed in shell suits.

And at the end of the park there sits the Design Museum. Inside which was the works of Ai Weiwei, the noted Chinese artist, ‘activist’ and all-round troublemaker, the one who’s seminal work filled the hallway of the Tate Modern a few years back. That was a 120 metre display of stones. Not painted, not tipped or dumped, but each one ‘placed’. Millions of them. It sat there for ages. Because no-one could be bothered to pick them up again. And also, because it was ‘art’.

The Design Museum is a gorgeous space, massive, which was good because Ai Weiwei doesn’t really get the whole ‘minimal’ thing at all. For him, art is BIG. And so, inevitably, there were lesser rows of stones on the floor. Broken tea pots, all arranged nicely, lying there, about 30 metres by 20. Its what he does. I get that. And its meaningful. Didn’t get that quite as much but there is an aesthetic there, no doubt. And the man has spent his life defying the Chinese authorities, for which he must be credited. And why he now lives in Portugal.

But here’s the amazing thing, if you’re into coincidence.

Having written extensively yesterday my personal homage to Lego, and Yego, it turns out that there is one fan even more devoted than me to little Swedish bricks, and that is Ai Weiwei. He’s done loads of work with Lego bricks. Massive works with tiny bricks. There’s his version of Monet’s Water Lilies, amazing, 25 metres long, obviously, and must contain a million little Lego pieces.

When China put him in prison, Lego wouldn’t or couldn’t send him any bricks. So people sort of ‘crowdfunded’ his needs and send him tons of them. Which is what he displayed in the traditional Ai Weiwei manner, by dumping them on the floor. Like Joey would. That wouldn’t please his mum, I’m sure.

Happy Sunday

A xxxx