Ruyi
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Ai’s reinterpretation of a ruyi (wish fulfillment) scepter, an emblem of longevity and good fortune, recontextualizes its traditional iconography to insinuate new layers of meaning. The ruyi’s form is derived from a mushroom-shaped fungus that for more than two millennia was thought to confer immortality. Ai’s scepter riffs on this belief by making its health-granting properties anatomically specific. Composed of ceramic human organs, Ai’s scepter calls to mind not long life but humankind’s physical vulnerability.
Artwork Details
- Title: Ruyi
- Artist: Ai Weiwei (Chinese, born Beijing, 1957)
- Date: 2006
- Culture: China
- Medium: Glazed ceramic
- Dimensions: 6 × 30 1/4 × 9 in. (15.2 × 77 × 22.9 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Lent by M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong
- Rights and Reproduction: © Ai Weiwei
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art