I have chosen to use this name for my exhibit because of the contention surrounding Ai in China. Because he is a political activist, shedding light on different aspects of corruption in China through his art, the Chinese government is not fond of him. He has been beaten, detained, censored, surveilled, and had his studio demolished by the government because of his art.
His growing up during the Cultural Revolution certainly had an impact on Ai’s future artistic endeavors (Ai 2017). From 1983 to 1993, he lived in New York City, attending Parsons School of Design and gaining immense inspiration for projects unthinkable in hyper-censored China. Ai remarked that New York City’s creative and progressive atmosphere influenced him to create a great deal of art and inspired him to begin projects that engaged the public (Ai 2017).
Ai is a multi-faceted artist who utilizes a variety of different media to convey his societal commentary. Though he has delved into sculpture, large-scale installation, architecture, digital art, public-engagement projects, music, and film, for my exhibition I will focus on his photography.
Ai has exhibited silver gelatin prints, digital photos, and even images taken on a cell phone. Like his other work, his photographs are representations of his controversial messages to society. In his project Study of Perspective, on which he worked for approximately 22 years, Ai traveled and photographed himself giving the middle finger to some of the world’s most important landmarks. Just a few of the locations Ai photographed are the Sydney Opera House, Tiananmen Square, the Eiffel Tower, Trump Tower, and the Colosseum. The series is a comment on tourism and the tendency of society to blindly follow norms. Ai’s goal in creating this project was to encourage viewers to question their compliance with establishments and institutions deemed as significant by society. In this project, viewers can clearly see Ai’s dissent from the norm.
Ai Weiwei. “Study of Perspective – White House” 1995-2003. MoMA Collection.
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/117097?artist_id=34722&locale=en&page=1&sov_referrer=artist
References
“Ai Weiwei Gives World His Middle Finger.” Public Delivery. January 04, 2019. Accessed February 07, 2019. https://publicdelivery.org/ai-weiwei-study-of-perspective/#Study_of_perspective_in_Asia.
“Ai Weiwei: Artist and Human Rights Champion.” Ai Weiwei. Bloomberg Markets and Finance. YouTube. May 30, 2017. Accessed February 07, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8QAjQ1GS2U.
February 13, 2019 at 3:37 pm
I find your exhibition super fascinating as Ai Weiwei was targeted by the Chinese government for encouraging viewers to question the established orders that they live in and their compliance with these orders. My exhibition on the n*de form in Chinese art attempts to show the political and cultural overtones that the bare human form can take. Your exhibition, in a way, is similar to mine in that the art I have chosen/will choose attempts to expose to the viewer the confining gender politics at the time. Also, the topic of the n*de is largely censored in China and has a had a complicated history throughout time. Ai’s controversy with the Chinese government and your exhibition will help me look at the government through a different lens.