Baby steps

Here’s something you probably won’t see in an art museum in NZ anytime soon. Ai Weiwei has just shown Baby formula 2013. It is a giant map of China made from hundreds of cans of baby formula featuring popular brands. Back in 2008 New Zealand's Fonterra was involved in the milk formula scandals through its investment in the Chinese company Sanlu. In that instance three children died and many were hospitalised after drinking milk contaminated with melamine. Even now years later Chinese mothers still travel to Hong Kong to get what they perceive to be safe formula. Ai Weiwei says of his work, “This is a most fundamental assurance of food, but people actually have to go to another region to obtain this kind of thing. I think it's a totally absurd phenomenon."
Image: Ai Weiwei's Baby formula 2013