ai weiwei on why a dying tree inspired his first drawing in more than 50 years

ai weiwei returns to drawing with a portrait of a dying oak treeWhen Ai Weiwei heard that Sherwood Forest’s 1,200-year-old Major Oak had reached the end of its life, he felt an unexpected urge to draw. For Ai Weiwei, the drawing is less about returning to an abandoned medium than responding to a particular moment in his own life. ‘When I read the news that this 1,200-year-old tree had died, I suddenly felt compelled to go there and make a sketch.’ Ai Weiwei sees it differently. Ai Weiwei photographed with the completed drawing beneath the Major Oak