Ai Weiwei, Instillation, Life-jackets, Konzerthaus Berlin 2016

This instillation comes in the wake of several pieces of art from Ai Weiwei with the focus on refugees in Europe. The first major piece Ai Weiwei constructed on refugees was a recreation of the famous photo of a drowned Syrian refugee child washed up on the shores of  Greece. This photo drew world wide attention to struggles Syrian refugees where enduring in the hopes of getting their families somewhere safe. Ai Weiwei connected to the struggle the refugees where experiencing as he also had to leave his home country of china as it was not safe for him any longer. This put him in a unique situation where his voice on the crisis had a very strong impact. Shortly after his photo recreation Ai Weiwei chose to cancel an instillation he had planned in Copenhagen after hearing of a law passed in Denmark that allowed authorities to seize valuable assets of asylum seekers and withhold them from their families. All of this occurred in 2015 subsequently in 2016 Ai Weiwei created his instillation which features the Pillars of the Konzerthaus Berlin in Germany fully wrapped in life jacket. This instillation was put up during the same time the Berlin film festival was occurring. Some believe that the instillation which clearly is in reference to the ongoing Syrian refugee situation was not well thought out (Neuendorf, 2016), as it was installed in a Germany who had accepted the most refugees out of any country in the European union. However in typical Ai Weiwei fashion, he lets the work speak for itself and chooses to have very little commentary about it. While some think that it is wrong to have put this instillation in Germany, the art instantly drew great media attention and brought the focus back to the refugee crisis which is most likely what Ai Weiwei intended.

Bibliography

Tan, Monica. “Ai Weiwei Poses as Drowned Syrian Infant Refugee in ‘Haunting’ Photo.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 1 Feb. 2016, www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/feb/01/ai-weiwei-poses-as-drowned-syrian-infant-refugee-in-haunting-photo.

Neuendorf, Henri. “Ai Weiwei Showcases 14,000 Refugee Life Jackets in Berlin.” Artnet News, 15 Feb. 2016, news.artnet.com/art-world/ai-weiwei-life-jackets-installation-berlin-427247.

Li Hua, Raging Tide I: Struggle, woodcut, Dimensions 22 x 16 in. (55.9 x 40.6 cm), 1947. Source: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/77098

Li Hua’s “Raging Tide I: Struggle” is a woodcut print that portrays three strained figures laboring in an agricultural field. These men appear to be dragging a plow through the barren fields of rural China. Both the facial expressions and body language of these men reflect the agony these men are experiencing while working in the fields. The viewer can almost sympathize with these toured souls, presumably forced to cultivate this land for their feudal master. Li Hua combines western influence of German expressionism with traditional woodcut print to create a masterpiece.

Li Hua directly references the Peasants’ War series by the German Expressionist Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) in this work. But, at the same time, his work refers to the social turmoil in China during their Civil War. Li Hua provides social commentary that critiques the traditional Chinese life in the rural countryside. Li Hua addresses these issues with a sympathetic and humanitarian touch to his artwork. In this work he reflects the harsh and unfair realities of Chinese feudalism through the pain and agony of the working class peasants. Although Li Hua was not officially a part of CCP until 1953, his works were largely associated with their movement.

Li Hua used woodcut print for art because he believed that it was the best medium to portray social and political upheavals and to promote change, because of its simple black and white nature. The introduction to the modern woodcut movement originated from Lu Xun. In the late 1920’s Lu Xun introduced the modern Western woodcuts in China from German graphic artist, Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) and the Russian engraver, Vladimir A. Favorsky (1886-1964). He considered Western woodcuts a counterpart to the traditional Chinese woodcut prints and combined the two techniques to vividly capture social and political issues in China. Lu Xun proved to be immensely influential to modern Chinese art and introduced technique of woodcut printing to artists such as Li Hua. Many artists followed Lu Xun’s ideals and used the woodcut to promote social/political change and modernization in China.

Citations:

Hung, Chang-Tai. “Two Images of Socialism: Woodcuts in Chinese Communist Politics.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 39, no. 1, 1997, pp. 34–60.

Lin, Pei-Yin. Print, Profit, and Perception : Ideas, Information and Knowledge in Chinese Societies, 1895-1949, edited by Weipin Tsai, BRILL, 2014.