Ai WeiWei’s “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors” is a public art exhibition littered throughout the city in the form of looming structures, bus shelters, lampposts, and advertising platforms. It “encompasses many groups by spanning several periods and locales” as described on the exhibition’s website, representing how vast and diverse the city is.

One simple but widespread part of the project is the 200 banners hung up on lamp posts across the boroughs, all portraying immigrants or refugees from various parts of the world. Some of the banners portray significant historical figures, such as Banner 49 in on 37th Rd of Anne Frank at her desk, while others, such as Banner 25 mere feet away from Anne Frank, are nameless refugees, giving a face to the general struggles of people who come to this country. The banners are created by cutting black vinyl, which creates a double-sided image using positive and negative space, which is meant to reflect the “often-ambiguous status” of American migrants. Some photos are historic, some come from the Ellis Island archives, some from Weiwei’s own studio at his Iraqi Shariyan camp, and some are simple cell phone photos; the variety of photo sources reflects a range of “significance” between these figures. The “consistent format” of these banners is meant to replicate a “share humanity” between the diverse figures, relating to the project’s general theme of unity. In the scope of this project, the nameless woman from an Idomeni makeshift camp is just as important as Anne Frank.]

There are seven major structures as part of the “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors” project. The only structure in Queens is the Circle Fence, located around the Unisphere. The Unisphere, created for the 1964 World’s Fair during the Cold War, was chosen because it is the most significant icon in Queens, and Weiwei wishes to draw attention back to the sentiment of unity over anti-immigrant nationalism. The rope fence around the metal globe is weaved into abstract shapes and described as both “playful and sobering”- children can even bounce around on it without breaking it. Another one of the structures can be seen at Washington Square Park in lower Manhattan, under the main arch, where a 37 foot steel cage stands tall. The arch itself represents George Washington paving the way for democracy in our country, and Ai Weiwei has adopted that same structure in his cage, which uses the arch’s theme in its message. The cage pays homage to Marcel Duchamp by incorporating the silhouette of two intertwined people from his “Door for Gradiva” in Paris. This was an important decision for Weiwei because it brought a lot of symbolism to the piece as Duchamp, an immigrant himself, frequented the park and once “spread out blankets, hung Chinese lanterns, tied red balloons to the arch’s parapet, declaring it the ‘Free and Independent Republic of Washington Square’” with a group of artists. The opening in the cage under the arch outlined by the conjoined figures by an immigrant symbolizes the need for all of us to come together as one human race and work with each other to achieve a true democracy where everyone can live and work peacefully together, with New York City, one of the most diverse cities, being a great example in the real world of this ideal. Another structure, the five fences at the Foundation Building of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, is another sort of barrier that Ai Weiwei incorporated into an everyday setting to bring a message to the viewer. The 5 silver mesh security fences create a physical barrier in front of the portico without disrupting their intended use. Weiwei, by implementing a see-through fence, forms a metaphorical barrier rather than a physical one, representing the disconnect between Americans and immigrants.