Artist of the day: Artist of the day, December 11: Ai Weiwei, a Chinese contemporary artist and activist (#861)

Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Artist of the day, December 11: Ai Weiwei, a Chinese contemporary artist and activist (#861)

Ai Weiwei (1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist and activist. Ai collaborated with architects Herzog & de Meuron as a consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics. As an activist, he has been openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular, the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of "tofu-dreg schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2011, following his arrest at Beijing Capital International Airport, he was held for 81 days without charge; officials alluded to allegations of "economic crimes".

Since being allowed to leave China in 2015, he has lived in Berlin, Germany, with his family, working and traveling internationally.

Ai's impact on the West is arguably greater than it is in China, where he remains a controversial figure. In the U.S. and Europe, he is almost universally revered, both as an artist and political activist, and has led the way to a more nuanced awareness of Chinese contemporary culture in the international community.

He is an inspirational figure for many people both in the West and in China, and both in and outside the art world. Ai's struggle for freedom of speech and expression sheds light on specific issues that are important in their own right. More broadly, it reminds us of the power of visual art to move us as individuals, and sometimes entire nations, to action. Ai's work underscores the idea that art may have the power, and even the responsibility, to change society.

Members of the general public and the wider art community continue to support him. His often enigmatic messages on Instagram and Twitter have moved his "followers" to participate in the creative process by responding in an array of on-line expressions of artistic and political solidarity that are in turn indebted to his approach to art as a social practice. In October 2015, for example, when Lego refused Ai a large shipment of blocks (on the grounds that it doesn't endorse political art), hundreds of Ai's followers sent their own Legos to the artist, via mail and official collection points. The entire event was organized through social media.

Numerous artists working across a range of media, in China and beyond, have been moved by Ai's expressive conceptualism and fearless activism. These include artist Huang Rui, whose works include provocative performances based on China's relationship with the West. Xu Qu's political conceptual installations are directly inspired by Ai's. As a high-profile, controversial figure (as well as a stark example of how dangerous political activism can be) it is also entirely possible that Ai's activism has put a negative spin on political art for a growing group of young Chinese artists who have retreated from contemporary politics, claiming that they know a different (better) China from that experienced by Ai and that political art belongs to an older generation.

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