Offset lithograph on Arco wove paper
Published by Imperial War museum, London.
Edition size 1000
Signed certificate of authenticity.
50 x 70 cm.

Ai Weiwei’s themes of social urgency and his attempt to address critical global conditions, namely political conflict & war, are brilliantly illustrated in History of Bombs. In 2020 the Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London, approached Ai Weiwei to do a site-specific work on the theme of refugees. The result was a rendering of 50 life-size images of bombs, which covered the floor of the atrium & exterior of the staircase within the museum. Visitors were invited to walk across and explore the artwork up close. At a time when the world is quaking from a natural pandemic, Ai Weiwei reminds us of our mind-boggling capacity to obliterate ourselves. These bombs all appear terribly beautiful, yet History of Bombs delivers what it promises – a history of the clever ways we kill one another.