Ai Weiwei Unveils 'Mushrooms' with 500 Cast-Iron Helmets at Sydney's MCA

Key facts

• Ai Weiwei's Mushrooms comprises 500 cast-iron combat helmets in ten uniform rows.
• The work was unveiled on Friday 25 September as the Neil Balnaves Tallawoladah Lawn Commission outside the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney.
• Mushrooms will remain on view for seven months.
• The title refers to "growth in darkness, nuclear mushroom clouds, and in Chinese, the term also suggests endless delays."
• The idea originated when Germany offered 5,000 helmets to aid Ukraine just before Russia's attack in February 2022.
• Ai Weiwei states the work is "not a political joke" but "a metaphor and a warning."
• The commission is named after Australian philanthropist and businessman Neil Balnaves, who died at 77 in a boating accident near Tahiti in 2022.
• The first commission was Thomas J. Price's Ancient Feelings, a three-metre-high golden bronze sculpture of a woman's head gazing towards Sydney Harbour.