Over 100 fence sculptures are being installed around NYC this fall

For the final exhibition of its 40th Anniversary year, the Public Art Fund is swinging for the fences.

The organization has announced a city-spanning new work by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei entitled, "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors." The ambitious piece will feature more than 100 fences and installations built across the city, and will officially open on October 12. It’s expected to be one of the provocative artist’s most ambitious projects to date.

More locations for the installation will be announced in the coming months, but current confirmed sites include Flushing, Downtown Brooklyn, Central Park and the Lower East Side. The piece will use the motif of metal security fencing, and transform it to respond to existing architecture and landscapes surrounding each site.

The work, with its stark and intimidating base material, is meant to address the global rise of nationalism, the proliferation of border fences and the architecture of division.

“The exhibition brings together many strands in Weiwei’s life and work, including his childhood experience of displacement during the Cultural Revolution, his more recent persecution as an activist, his formative years in NYC and his interest in architecture and design,” said the Public Art Fund’s director and chief curator Nicholas Baume in a statement. “It reflects his profound empathy with other displaced people, particularly migrants, refugees and victims of war.” 

"Good Fences Make Good Neighbors" will be on view until February 11, 2018.