AI WEIWEI : BATTLE AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT

by Nancy

BACKGROUND

Ai Weiwei’s background

Ai weiwei was born in 1957 to Ai Qing, a famous poet. He works as an artist and a political activist, and practically all of his work is politically charged to varying degrees.

1958- exiled to Xinjiang for labour camp

1978 - Studied at Beijing film academy but focused on the Avant Garde art group - stars

BACKGROUND

After his time at the university, he lived in the US from 1981 to 1993 and studied at Parsons school of design for a short while, then attended the Art Students League of New York during this period (1983 - 1986).

He met a number of other artists, however the most important influences for his work came from Marcel Duchamp , Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. This is what gave birth to his ‘conceptual artist’ title, as he began to change readymade objects.

BACKGROUND- In 1993, Ai’s father fell ill so he returned to China

- He helped to develop the ‘Beijing east village,’ a community of artists who lived in ‘low-quality migrant worker housing’

- He then created 3 books promoting this ‘new generation’ of artists, called the Black Cover book (1994), White Cover book (1995) and the Gray cover book (1997)

GALLERIES

LISSON GALLERY

- Ai Weiwei is affiliated with the Lisson Gallery, they describe his art to be:

‘audacious gestures that command global attention, but always underlain with humor and compassion’

‘Ai distils ancient and modern aesthetics in works of salvage or iconoclasm’

LISSON GALLERY

- Some of his most notable solo exhibitions are :

- Haus der Kunst, Munich (2009)

- Tate Modern, London (2010)

- Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2011)

- Washington D.C. (2012)

- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (2012)

- Indianapolis museum of art (2013)

- Martin Gropius Bau (2014)

- Royal Academy of Arts (2015)

POLITICAL ACTIVISM

THE BEGINNING OF A DISSIDENT : BEIJING OLYMPICS

“It was merely a stage for a political party to advertise its glory to the world”

“I was so involved in architecture that it opened my eyes to society, dealing with bureaucracy, policies and workers,” “and then you start to realise why they are

building, and how they are using it. It is a very political act.”

Beijing Bird’s nest Stadium (2008)

Afterwards, the state tightened its controls;

China became a police state.

"Friendship, fair play, glory, honour and

peace": the Olympic slogan is an empty

one.

SICHUAN 2008 EARTHQUAKE

‘STRAIGHT’ (2008-2012)

150 tonnes of steel rebar straightened out, from the framework of the school destroyed in the earthquake.

The work took 4 years to make due to huge number of the bars that had to be straightened.

STRAIGHT (2008 - 2012)

‘Let's just ask how many people, and how old are they. And nobody gave us an answer. So I said, Okay - maybe i'll do research myself.’

“At least we can find out who is dead, and we only wanted to focus on the children - because we see too many student's backpacks strewn everywhere, textbooks,

pencils”

- Ai Weiwei, (2015) Ai Weiwei and Tim Marlow in Conversation: Part 1

REMEMBERING (2009) on the facade of Haus der Kunst (munich)

‘‘She has been living in this world happily for 7 years’

embering (2009), 100 x 1000cm

THE AFTERMATH OF THE INVESTIGATIONIn August 2009 in Chengdu, officials came to Ai Weiwei’s residence in Chengdu,and detained and attacked him before he could make it to court to testify for Tan Zuoren, another activist who helped to reveal the names of the students killed in the earthquake. They placed him in holding,missing the trial, and Tan Zuoren was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Despite Ai providing evidence of police brutality, the police denied it.

STUDIO CONTROVERSY

- On the 11th January 2011, one of Ai Weiwei’s studios was demolished - despite the fact that the government had overseen the building of the studio.

- Accused him of lacking a proper planning permit, dubbing it ‘illegal,’ even though according to Ai, the government was involved in helping him plan it.

- They placed him under house arrest in November 2010 to ‘prevent the planned party marking the demolition of his newly built Shanghai studio.’

Hie Xie, (2010)

2011 ARREST

- Weiwei was arrested on April 3rd 2011 at the Beijing Airport while he was waiting for his flight to Hong Kong.

- Government officers came to his studio and detained 8 staff members, along with his wife.

- They took his laptops and his hard drives, claiming his arrest was first due to his departure procedures being incomplete, then charging him for ‘economic crimes.’

S.A.C.R.E.D (2013)

“He was watched all the time during his detention under obsessive surveillance at a very close proximity,” says Maurizio Bortolotti, curator S.A.C.R.E.D

ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION- CAO (2014) and Marble Stroller

(2014)

Cao(2014)

- ‘The wild fire can burn, not destroy it - because when the spring comes, it becomes green again’

- Ai Weiwei

Marble Stroller (2014) and Surveillance Camera(2010)

HOW THE WESTERN WORLD VIEWS HIM- China sees him as a dissident and a rebel

- Europe and the Western art world almost idolise him, being listed in ArtReview’s ‘The Power 100’ (the most powerful figures in contemporary art) twice, ranked 43rd and 13th respectively – finally winning first place in October 2011.

- The Chinese Authorities criticised this, with Liu Weimin (the Chinese Foreign ministry spokesman) saying :

- "China has many artists who have sufficient ability. We feel that a selection that is based purely on a political bias and perspective has violated the objectives of the magazine"

CRITICISM FROM THE WESTERN WORLD

In 2013, an art critic called Jed Perl said that he admired Ai’s fight against the political regime in China – however labelled his work ‘alternately inane’ or ‘derivative of American Modernism.’

He also described it as ‘highly diluted Dadaism’ and ‘Postmodern minimalist political kitsch’

WHY DOES THE ART WORLD LOVE HIM?

- Ratnam says that the work contains a ‘certain level of cultural condescension’

- As Ai is more used to the cultural climate in the US, it he’s more attuned to the Western art world than other famous Chinese contemporary artists

Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995

Ai Weiwei, Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995, 3 black and white prints, each 148 x 121 cm    

AI WEIWEI’S PLACE IN THE ART WORLD

-With this growing criticism of his work from Western artists/curators, some people have started to liken Weiwei’s work to those of political extremists such as the Red Guards (A group of youths in a paramilitary force – who wanted to:

‘sweep away reactionary, decadent bourgeois and feudal influences, and all old ideas, culture, customs and habits’

HOW SHOULD WE REACT TO HIS WORK