The more I read about his work, the better it seems and the more I want to see it for real. His growth as an artist in a relatively short period has been prodigious. And he has much experience to draw on. Born in 1957, Ai Weiwei was only one year old when he was caught up in the Cultural Revolution with his family. His father, a leading poet suddenly regarded as dangerously intellectual, was reduced to lavatory cleaner in a remote province. He grew up in hardship and poverty, and it was only in 1978, after 20 years in the wilderness, that the family was allowed to return to Beijing and his father's position and reputation was reinstated.

Pausing only help found a group of Western-oriented Chinese artists, the Stars, Ai Weiwei then headed for the United States in 1981. There he encountered contemporary art in full swing but more importantly was able to study at first hand the work of Dadaists such as Duchamp, who have clearly influenced him greatly. One suspects however that his sense of irony, so apparent in much of his work, was already firmly established.

He claims in interviews to have done relatively little during his time in the States, and what is recorded is very much in the Dadaist mould. A violin with a spade handle for a neck tells us fairly plainly about the fate of artists during the Cultural Revolution. By 1993, on hearing of the illness of his father, he returned to Beijing, and so began a burst of creativity that continues unabated today. His work is becoming steadily more ambitious and architectural.

There is a work called "Concrete" from 2000, for instance, that is a C-shaped concrete sculpture - essentially a tall cylinder with a slot, set on a broad flight of steps with water trickling from it - that is worthy of Tadao Ando. There is another work from the same year, "In Between" where a complete room appears to crash down through the levels of an apartment building, appearing on both the 19th and 20th floors. This is in the spirit of Juan Munoz. And a work of 2002, "Chandelier" is just that: a huge chandelier, made by Ai Weiwei, that completely and disturbingly fills the room he constructs for it, from ceiling to floor.