Unique and intricate sculptures can be found all over New York City if one knows where to find them. Each with a different purpose, visitors and artists will bask in their creativity. Now a new set of sculptures, all the same, will be popping up in different places in New York City, and their purpose? Immigration.

Controversial Chinese artist, Ai Weiwei, is designing and building ten fences throughout New York City. The fences are set to give out a message, “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors.” Weiwei is known for his unique and creative design, one of the most popular is the famous “Birds Nest” in Beijing China, that was used for the 2008 Olympics.

This project is one of Weiwei’s most large-scale public projects. The Public Art Fund, which is a nonprofit organization, developed in 1977, is commissioning the project for its 40th anniversary. The exhibition will begin on October 12th of this year.

The ten fences or fence themed sculptures will be placed across the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn. It will be one of the most distributed work ever done. Never before has the Public Art Fund done something of this scale, especially with an artist like Weiwei. Past artists to work with the Public Art Fund are Alexander Calder and Sol Lewitt.

Among the locations of the proposed fences are, Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, the Cooper Union building in New York City, as well as the most popular corner of Central Park, the Doris C. Freedman plaza located right in front of the iconic Plaza Hotel, which is also filled with tourists.

Weiwei is taking a jab at all the current issues with immigration in the United States. Weiwei who was a resident of New York City recently stated: “we are witnessing a rise in nationalism, an increase in the closure of borders, and an exclusionary attitude towards migrants and refugees, the victims of war and the casualties of globalization.”

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