Fifteen years ago, artist and activist Ai WeiWei was secretly detained without charge by China’s Public Security. For 81 days, he lived in a single cell, where he carried out all his daily activities. Sewing a Button is a 24-hour live performance work re-enacting this brutal and life-changing experience.

Hawkins\Brown designed the ‘cell’ in which much of the performance takes place, faithful in size and scale to the original, with  details reinterpreted for the performance.  The team met with Ai Weiwei and his studio team on several occasions before producing concept imagery and visuals, followed by a series of fabrication drawings.

Sewing a Button is anchored around a series of rituals undertaken in his cell – some mundane, like eating, washing, writing and exercise – and others more thought provoking, including interrogations.

The overall theme of the piece is surveillance. Whilst the performance will take place in the theatre of Aviva Studios, it will also be broadcast online, and two large screens showing the live CCTV feed will also be part of the performance space.

The performance will take place on July 3-4 as a part of the Ai Weiwei Button Up! take-over of Aviva Studios taking place from July to September.

Photograph by Gonçalo F. Santos