Megacities Asia at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: Urbanization Through Art

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, presents "Megacities Asia," an exhibition curated by Laura Weinstein and Al Miner, running until July 17, 2016. The show features artists from five rapidly growing Asian cities—Seoul, New Delhi, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Beijing—responding to unprecedented urbanization. Two panels display demographic data: from 1960 to 2014, Seoul grew from 5.2 to 25 million, New Delhi from 2.3 to 25 million, Shanghai from 6.8 to 23 million, Mumbai from 4.3 to 20.7 million, and Beijing from 3.9 to 19 million. Projections to 2030 show Tokyo reaching 37.2 million, while New York will hit 20 million. Artists use accumulated everyday objects to create large installations. Ai Weiwei presents bicycle segments in a circle, evoking a lost Beijing. Subodh Gupta's "Take off your shoes and wash your hands" arranges stainless steel kitchen utensils in a grid. Choi Jeong Hwa builds a green landscape from plastic objects. Aaditi Joshi creates a multicolored cloud from fused plastic bags. Yin Xiuzhen uses fragments of demolished walls to comment on real estate conflicts in Beijing. Hu Xiangchen incorporates wood from Ming and Qing dynasty houses replaced by new construction in Shanghai. The exhibition occupies multiple spaces throughout the museum.