Ai Weiwei has unveiled a new large-scale reproduction of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies as part of an upcoming exhibition of the architect-provocateur’s work on view from April 7 at the Design Museum in London.

The 15-meter (49-foot) Water Lilles #1 is comprised of 650,000 bricks rendered in 22 different colors to reproduce the famous series of paintings, which Monet executed between 1897 and 1926 at his home studio in Giverny. 

Ai says: “It’s crucial for individuals to find a personalized language to express their experience of these challenging conditions. Personalized expression arises from identifying with history and memories while creating a new language and narrative. Without a personal narrative, artistic narration loses its quality. In Water Lilies #1 I integrate Monet's Impressionist painting, reminiscent of Zenism in the East, and concrete experiences of my father and me into a digitized and pixelated language. Toy bricks as the material, with their qualities of solidity and potential for deconstruction, reflect the attributes of language in our rapidly developing era where human consciousness is constantly dividing."

The exhibition is Weiwei’s first solo show in eight years and his first at the Kensington museum. It also is notable because of the company’s controversial retracted decision to deny Wewei a license to use the bricks in his “political work” (a row he refers to directly in another one of the pieces), and its status as the largest such work he has completed using legos as a material.

Curator Justin McGuirk added that the latest lego work presents an alternative vision to the rampant development China has undergone in the last two decades while pointing out a reference to Weiwei’s childhood exile dwelling that's also embedded within it. 

“This is a monumental, complex and powerful work and we are proud to be the first museum to show it,” he added.

Ai Weiwei: Making Sense will be on view at the Design Museum until July 30th.