The notion of preserving the spiritual and aesthetic qualities underlying craft and discovering in them an eternal element is an integral part of Ai's sensibility. In "Forever" both the title and form of the piece suggest the notion of eternity. Ai arranges Forever-brand bicycles in a circle. Since the company's establishment in China in 1940, these bicycles have become the most iconic brand in China. The use of the bicycle as an object of art recalls Duchamp's Readymade Bicycle Wheel (1913), as well as Ai's frequent tactic of retaining the structure of an object while eliminating its original function and reformulating it into something new. Here, Ai retains the external form of the bicycle, formerly China's most widespread mode of transportation, while eliminating its function, just as the bicycles's raison d'etre is being made obsolete by the automobile in Chinese society. The monumental sculpture of bicycles interlinked in a circle elicits questions of harmony, eternity and equality in a rapidly changing society.