Every year, the New Mexico Arts agency commissions ten "temporary, visually engaging, and conceptually rich environmental artworks" for the Navajo TIME project (Temporary Installations Made for the Environment). One of the projects this year was a collaboration between Ai Weiwei and Navajo artist Bert Benally in Coyote Canyon titled Pull of the Moon.
The installation kicks off what New Mexico Arts is developing as "a new biennial temporary public art installation event in Navajo Nation." According to Artnet, Weiwei became involved with the project when organizers reached out to his studio a year ago and he agreed. The landscape where the project is installed allegedly "reminded the artist of the labor camp where he had grown up in Western China during the Cultural Revolution."
Check out the video below in which Benally talks about Pull of the Moon, Navajo culture and heritage, and working with Ai Weiwei.
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[via Artnet]
