4 ms·

I saw the Ai Weiwei show recently and I was noting that he uses his brief imprisonment for its performance value and I was a bit critical of this. There was one

I saw the Ai Weiwei show recently and I was noting that he uses his brief imprisonment for its performance value and I was a bit critical of this. There was one room that was just all the artifacts laid out (police reports, confiscated computers). This didn't seem like much of an artwork compared to his much better and more complex ones like http://www.zodiacheads.com/about_exhibit_gold.html http://www.zodiacheads.com/about_exhibit_gold.html But after a while I understood that this is his strategy to simply transform all oppression and government intervention into some artistic response. Both he and the government understand that this makes it into a stalemate. Whatever they do, he echos it and gets publicity out of it. But those pieces are not his major works at all. http://nprberlin.de/post/ai-weiweis-evidence-exhibit-opens-martin-gropius-bau-berlin http://nprberlin.de/post/ai-weiweis-evidence-exhibit-opens-m... http://www.designboom.com/art/ai-weiwei-straightens-150-tons-of-steel-rebar-from-sichuan-quake/ http://www.designboom.com/art/ai-weiwei-straightens-150-tons...

LiweiZ 12y ago
The interesting part is, in my experience, his famous works in Chinese media are all political ones and I see little art in them, if those can be called true art. Most of what I see are just iconic man doing visual protest in art's name. This is actually such a privilege in China, if you know the consequence average people face by doing this. This is maybe where my bias comes from. And he seems quite enjoy people in developed world see him as a fighter and some in his own country see him as one of the most famous artists. I just want to point out what I see since no one mentions this online and HN readers may be able to accept some different point of view.
- crucialfelix 12y ago
  I think its because that's what the media and non-art people focus on both in and out of China. Its easier to understand than zodiac heads which has lots of historical backstory and questions what is traditional. But of course he is milking it. (after all the exhibit is called "Evidence") aesthetically I'm much more impressed by this guy: http://www.caiguoqiang.com/projects/inopportune-stage-two-2004-north-adams-ma-usa http://www.caiguoqiang.com/projects/inopportune-stage-two-20... but you could accuse him of being decorative and of using stereotypical Chinese imagery. I still like it.
  - LiweiZ 12y ago
    Perhaps I'm just not into Chinese culture of the past 500 years:)

LiweiZ 12y ago

The interesting part is, in my experience, his famous works in Chinese media are all political ones and I see little art in them, if those can be called true art. Most of what I see are just iconic man doing visual protest in art's name. This is actually such a privilege in China, if you know the consequence average people face by doing this. This is maybe where my bias comes from. And he seems quite enjoy people in developed world see him as a fighter and some in his own country see him as one of the most famous artists. I just want to point out what I see since no one mentions this online and HN readers may be able to accept some different point of view.

crucialfelix 12y ago
I think its because that's what the media and non-art people focus on both in and out of China. Its easier to understand than zodiac heads which has lots of historical backstory and questions what is traditional. But of course he is milking it. (after all the exhibit is called "Evidence") aesthetically I'm much more impressed by this guy: http://www.caiguoqiang.com/projects/inopportune-stage-two-2004-north-adams-ma-usa http://www.caiguoqiang.com/projects/inopportune-stage-two-20... but you could accuse him of being decorative and of using stereotypical Chinese imagery. I still like it.
- LiweiZ 12y ago
  Perhaps I'm just not into Chinese culture of the past 500 years:)