Smithsonian.com

Ai WeiWei's "Fragments" is now on display at the Sackler Gallery.

Between 1990 and 1995, floor space under construction surged by 750 percent in Beijing. This real estate boom, coupled with new housing deregulations, “radically changed the landscape of post-Tianenmen Beijing,” says Sackler Gallery curator Carol Huh. In the rush to modernize China, ancient structures were torn down and replaced with brand new houses and apartment buildings.

Chinese artist Ai WeiWei noticed the abundance of antique wood that flooded the market from this widespread demolition and began collecting pieces. Over the years, he incorporated this wood into various installations. The pieces that were left over he joined together in a structure called “Fragments,” on display in the lobby of the Sackler Gallery through April 7, 2013.

Using ironwood pillars and beams from dismantled Qing dynasty (1644-1912) temples, Ai worked with a team of carpenters to construct what he calls  an “irrational structure.” At first glance, the large installation does indeed resemble a randomly assembled jungle gym. But in fact, the beams form a deliberate system that maps out the borders of China. The tallest pole, at 16 feet, marks the location of Beijing. Through the marriage of the discarded past (in the form of the Qing temple building blocks) and modern aesthetics, Ai explores the spatial and cultural transformations of modern Beijing, China, and the world.

The beams are held together by wooden pegs, not nails, that must be fit together perfectly. The team of carpenters employed old-fashioned techniques to balance the complex structure. Huh explained the difficult “choreography” of installing “Fragments” at the Sackler: “It’s not so much about strength in size or force, but really just perfect alignment in order to put the pieces together.”

The relationship between past and present, tradition and modernity, fascinates Ai, especially during a time when China is struggling to find a balance between its explosion of urban development and the preservation of the country’s rich history. Thus far, Huh points out, creating a new world has meant the destruction of the old one, resulting in what she calls “our fugitive relationship to the past.”

“It’s in the midst of this simultaneous erasure and capture of heritage that Ai turned more to objects and traces of the past,” she says.

Ai, who is currently under house arrest in Beijing, is well-known in China and abroad as an outspoken critic of the Chinese government who is not afraid to express his protests through art. “In normal circumstances I know it’s undesirable for an artist to be labeled a political activist or dissident. But I’ve overcome that barrier,” Ai says in a statement he wrote to the Hirshhorn Museum, which will exhibit a survey of his work in October. “The suits that people dress you in are not as important as the content you put forth, so long as it gives meaning to new expression. The struggle is worthwhile if it provides new ways to communicate with people and society.”

The Hirshhorn is also currently hosting Ai’s “Zodiac Heads” installation, which explores similar themes of heritage and history. But while “Zodiac Heads” and “Fragments” both draw on the past, they have everything to do with the present. To explain this relationship, Huh quotes the artist himself: “The faster we move, the more often we turn our heads back to look how fast.”

“Fragments” will be on display at the Sackler Gallery through April 7, 2013.

It its collection, the National Museum of American History has a fallout shelter, exhumed from a yard in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Image courtesy of NMAH.

“We do not want a war. We do not know whether there will be war. But we know that forces hostile to us possess weapons that could destroy us if we were unready. These weapons create a new threat—radioactive fallout that can spread death anywhere.

That is why we must prepare.”

-The Family Fallout Shelter (1959), published by the United States Office of Civil and Defense mobilization

The Andersons of Fort Wayne, Indiana, were preparing for nuclear fallout even before the government disseminated this booklet, which includes building plans for five basic shelters. In 1955, the family of three purchased a steel fallout shelter, complete with four drop-down beds, a chemical pit toilet and a hand cranked air exchanger for refreshing their air supply, and had it installed 15 feet below their front lawn for a total of $1,800.

Neighbors watched as a crane lowered the shelter, resembling a septic tank, into a pit. A few years later, in 1961, there was reportedly more commotion, when, at about the time of the Berlin Crisis, the Andersons had the shelter reinterred. Because it had not been sufficiently anchored, with the area’s water table in mind, it had crept back up until it finally poked through the surface.

Larry Bird, a curator in the division of political history at the National Museum of American History, first heard about the Cold War relic in 1991. Tim Howey, then-owner of the Fort Wayne home, had written a letter to the museum. He had removed some trees and shrubs that had hid the shelter’s access point and a few ventilation pipes for years, and, as a result, was fielding more and more questions from curious passers-by. While Howey was tiring of the attention, there was clearly public interest in the artifact, and he wondered if perhaps the Smithsonian would want it for its collection.

At the time, Bird was on the lookout for objects that would tell interesting stories about science in American life. Some of his colleagues at the museum were preparing an exhibition on the topic and were trying to recruit him to curate a section specifically on domestic life. “I saw the letter, and I thought this is your science in the home right here,” recalls Bird.

The curator had to see the fallout shelter for himself, and in late March of 1991, he made a scouting trip to Fort Wayne. Louis Hutchins, a historian, and Martin Burke, a museum conservator, accompanied him. “When you actually see it and sit in it,” says Bird, “it raises more questions about just what they thought they were doing.”

Martin Enterprises removed the shelter from Tim Howey's front yard. Image courtesy of NMAH.

For starters, in the case of nuclear attack, exactly how long was a family expected to stay burrowed in this tiny space? (Bird recently posted a video (embedded below) to YouTube of his first climb down into the shelter, which gives a sense of just how cramped the quarters are.) ”There is enough space for a six-foot person to stand up in the crown of it,” he says.

The curator found most government literature on fallout shelters to be pretty nondescript in terms of how much time had to pass after a bomb struck before it was safe to emerge, but the magazine Popular Science made an estimate. “The best guess now is: Prepare to live in your shelter for two weeks,” declared an article from December 1961. After being in it, Bird says, “That is probably about the length anyone would want to stay in one of these things before they killed each other or ran out of supplies and then killed each other.”

The fallout shelter, the museum team decided, was a powerful symbol of the fear that was so pervasive in the United States during the Cold War. “If you had money and you were frightened enough, it is the kind of thing that you would have invested in,” says Bird. And, in the 1950s and ’60s, many people, like the Andersons, were investing. “The shelter business is booming like a 25-megaton blast,” Popular Science reported.

The shelter was delivered at the museum, where it was on display from the spring of 1994 to this past November, when the "Science in American Life" exhibition closed. Image courtesy of NMAH.

The National Museum of American History arranged for Martin Enterprises, the company that had originally installed the shelter, to exhume it and haul it to Washington, D.C. on a flatbed. (As it turned out, the company did it for free.) “Some people thought that it would be so corroded. But you have to go along and do the job to find out,” says Bird. “It turned out it was fine.”

Until this past November, the family fallout shelter was on display in the museum’s long-running “Science in American Life” exhibition. A window was cut into the side of the double-hulled structure, so that visitors could peer inside. The museum staged it with sleeping bags, board games, toothpaste and other supplies from the era to suggest what it might have looked like when its owners had readied it for an emergency.

After his involvement in the acquisition, Bird started to get calls to let him know about and even invite him to other fallout shelters. “There are many, many more,” he says. “I imagine that the suburbs in Virginia and Maryland are just honeycombed with this kind of stuff.”

* For more about disaster shelters, read Smithsonian staff writer Abigail Tucker’s story on a recent boom in the luxury bomb shelter market.

Sliders served at last year's ZooFari benefit. Image courtesy of the National Zoo.

Tuesday, May 15 Words, Earth and Aloha

Celebrate Asian Pacific Heritage Month with the American Indian Museum’s May Daily Films. Words, Earth and Aloha celebrates the Hawaiian composers who flourished between the 1870s and the 1920s, exploring the poetry and play of Hawaiian lyrics as well as the places and features of the natural world that inspired songs that remain beloved to this day. The documentary is directed by Eddie Kamae, the legendary Hawaiian musician who helped launch the Hawaiian cultural renaissance. Free. 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. American Indian Museum.

Wednesday, May 16 merengue and méringue

Discover and celebrate the common traditions of island neighbors Haiti and the Dominican Republic at the Haiti-Dominican Friendship Concert, sponsored by the African Art Museum and the Smithsonian Latino Center. Enriquillo Tejada y Los Clarinetes Mágicos open with a set of Dominican merengues, boleros, and Latin jazz. Tabou Combo closes the show with konpa and Haitian méringue music. Both merengue and méringue stem from a blend of African and European roots. Free. 6:30 p.m. Baird Auditorium, Natural History Museum.

Thursday, May 17 ZooFari

Expand your palate at ZooFari, which has been called “D.C.’s foodie event of the year.” More than 100 of the best eateries in the area are participating this year. Add the fine wines, fabulous entertainment, animal demonstrations, and a great silent auction, all in the wild setting of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, and you have the recipe for a delicious evening. All proceeds will benefit the Zoo’s research, conservation and education programs. $150 for members, $200 for nonmembers. 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. National Zoo.

For a complete listing of Smithsonian events and exhibitions visit the goSmithsonian Visitors Guide. Additional reporting by Michelle Strange.

"Breaking Rank" by Drew Cameron (Army) and Drew Matott (Civilian) is made from the artists' shredded uniforms. Image courtesy of the Combat Paper Project – Collaboration with Green Door Studio, Burlington, VT.

Young veterans returning from the prolonged and grueling wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are finding new ways to cope with post-military life and they’re doing it through art. As a part of the Arts, Military + Healing: A Collaborative Initiative (AMH), veterans and civilians at the forefront of this movement are joining with national cultural institutions, art schools and the military community to create something new out of the destruction of war—catharsis through art therapy.

Starting Sunday, this week-long event offers five free workshops that will give military members of the AMH and their families a chance to work with art therapists, veteran and established artists. The program stretches across seven locations including the Library of Congress, National Air and Space Museum, and George Mason University.  Events include exhibitions, a film screening of Heather Courtney’s acclaimed documentary Where Soldiers Come From and a  performance by modern dance company, DancEthos, that demonstrates the healing benefits of the arts.

Shannon Maxwell, co-founder of the SEMPERMAX Support Fund, will make opening remarks to highlight the importance of arts as therapy. Her husband, Lt. Col. Tim Maxwell, USMC (retired), received a traumatic brain injury from a mortar attack in Iraq. The ceremony will be held at the Fly Marines! The Centennial of Marine Corps Aviation: 1912-2012 exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum, and will also include a presentation on the history of arts in the military.

A collection of veteran-made artwork will be on display at the Corcoran Gallery featuring works from the Combat Paper Project, a cathartic program that allows veterans to make paper-bound books of poetry and paintings from their shredded uniforms. Their motto “Make Paper not War,” rings true in the veteran-made artwork created from the destruction of their military garb.  Award-winning New York Times photographer, Joao Silva, will also share his experiences working in combat zones. He has experienced the danger first-hand having survived a land mine explosion covering the war in Afghanistan.

Arts, Military + Healing  will take place May 13-18. Free. For more information on the events, the mission, the participants and for a complete schedule visit www.artsandmilitary.org for specific times.

If you haven’t yet seen Doug Aitken’s SONG 1, the nightly spectacle projected on the Hirshhorn‘s outside walls, tonight might be the right time to swing by. For one night only, the museum is shutting off the speakers and replacing the normal soundtrack with a special live concert called “SONG 1: A Happening.” Against the backdrop of the 360-film loop, the bands Geologist, High Places, No Age, duo Tim McAfee Lewis and Leo Gallo, sound collagist Oneohtrix Point Never, and minimalist composer Nicolas Jaar, all covering the Flamingos’ song “I Only Have Eyes For You.” Tickets are $25 here.

If you feel like doing some pre-concert homework, Aitken himself will be holding a free symposium at noon and 3 p.m. with several art and music experts, including Sasha Frere-Jones, Geeta Dayal, Dean Kuipers, Zabet Patterson, and Aaron Betsky.

Can’t make it tonight? The project, originally meant to conclude tomorrow, has been extended to May 20.