Forever Bicycle

Forever Bicycles is a monumental installation composed of over a thousand stainless steel bicycles. Like Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel, Ai uses the familiar object as a ready-made. For Ai, who spent his childhood in exile with his father in the Gobi Desert, the bicycle represented personal freedom. Back then, to have a bicycle was a luxury. When he taught architecture, Ai used the bicycle to teach his students how they could build with materials beyond simply bricks and concrete. The name of the work comes from the “Forever” brand of bicycles, produced since the 1940s. The bicycles were ubiquitous on Chinese roads before cars and other motor vehicles became widely accessible.Forever Bicycles has been installed in exhibitions all over the world, from Melbourne to Toronto to London. Each installation is unique.