You’ve heard of sneak previews? Well, the AGO has invented the snake preview – which is now winding its way around the 60 ft x 20 ft ceiling of the Fleck Gallery, at the top of the Scissor Stairs.

Called (logically enough) “Snake Ceiling,” the installation consists of overlapping backpacks attached to a plywood snake form suspended from the ceiling. It is our first taste of the work of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, whose “According to What?” exhibition will open here on August 17.

By Thursday April 11, the structural challenges had been met, the plywood form installed, and the first backpack sections were being hoisted and strapped into place.

Here’s how it looked. Imagine you’re standing at the west end of the Fleck Gallery, looking east across the space toward the Henry Moore Sculpture Centre.

 

That crescent of backpacks on the right is the tail tip, with the plywood form then winding toward us (as viewers), around us and back east again, culminating in the head shape at the bottom left of the photo.

 

Here’s that head, close up…

 

 

“Safey is a major concern,” says Angelo Pedari, one of the AGO’s team of art handlers/installers. “We have to be sure the structure can bear the weight of the installation, and not come crashing down.” He adds, “That ceiling is just drywall.”

 

 

Solution? Lay out the design on the floor; transfer it to the ceiling by laser levels; locate structural supports above the drywall, drop rods from those supports through the drywall; attach cross-bars to the rods; drop a second set of rods from the cross-bars; and finally attach to them the computer -cut snake form.

By late Thursday morning, stacks of packs are lined up, waiting their turn to be lifted into place.

 

Consensus is, the backpacks are a commercial product, but then modified in the Weiwei studios. Each, for example, has internal straps to ensure they overlap exactly as required, and extra external straps to be wrapped around the plywood form and hold the “snake” in place.

One further modification: each pack has “5.12” stitched into it.

 

That stands for May 12 – the day of the massive 2008 earthquake in China that claimed some 90,000 lives, including many thousands of children, trapped in their schools. These packs are Weiwei’s tribute to the children.

While other colleagues begin adding more packs to the tail, working their way to the body section, Angelo and his mates concentrate on the head. These pack clusters are heavy. It takes two people – here Angelo, L, and Brian – to  wrestle them into position.

 

 

Now add a neck section…

 

And – ta-dahh! – we have a head.

 

And by now, we almost certainly have a whole snake. Go check it out!