Introduction
Ai Weiwei, Wade-Giles romanization Ai Wei-wei, (born May 18?, 1957, Beijing, China), Chinese artist and activist who produced a multifaceted array of creative work, including sculptural installations, architectural projects, photographs, and videos. While Ai’s art was lauded internationally, the frequently provocative and subversive dimension of his art, as well as his political outspokenness, triggered various forms of repression from Chinese authorities.
- Encyclopædia Britannica. (n.d.). Ai Weiwei. Britannica School. https://school-eb-com-au.db.plcscotch.wa.edu.au/levels/high/article/Ai-Weiwei/544835
-
Lewis, T. Ai Weiwei: ‘An artist must be an activist’. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/mar/22/ai-weiwei-an-artist-must-be-an-activist
Ai Weiwei’s studio can be found behind unmarked, black metal doors in a grand square in the old east Berlin. You immediately descend two flights of very steep stone stairs before emerging, blinking for light, into a vast, brick-lined cavern that has the proportions of a church. The temperature drops a few degrees.
The Fake Case
Johnsen. A. (2013). Ai WeiWei: The Fake Case. [Film]. Rosforth Films
Ai WeiWei in 'Change'
-
ARt21. org. (2022). Ai Wei Wei in 'Change" https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s6/ai-weiwei-in-change-segment/https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s6/ai-weiwei-in-change-segment/
During his incarceration, artist Ai Weiwei’s assistants, E-Shyh Wong and Inserk Yang come to New York in his place for the unveiling of Ai’s public artwork near Central Park Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (2010). Wong and Yang provide insight into his working processes and their belief that neither they nor we should remain silent about his detention.
Never Sorry
Klayman.A. (Director). (2012). Ai WeiWei Never Sorry. [Film]. United Expressions Media.
Links
-
Ai WeiWei.com. (n.d.) Ai WeiWei Films. https://www.aiweiwei.com/
Ai Weiwei is renowned for making strong aesthetic statements that resonate with timely phenomena across today’s geopolitical world. From architecture to installations, social media to documentaries, Ai uses a wide range of mediums as expressions of new ways for his audiences to examine society and its values.
-
Tate.org.uk. (n.d.). Ai WeiWei. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/ai-weiwei-8208
Ai Weiwei (Chinese: 艾未未; pinyin: Ài Wèiwèi, English pronunciation: (help·info); born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile.
-
Stevens. M. ( 2012). Is Ai Weiwei China’s Most Dangerous Man? https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/is-ai-weiwei-chinas-most-dangerous-man-17989316/
Last year, the editors of ArtReview magazine named the Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei the most powerful artist in the world. It was an unusual choice. Ai’s varied, scattershot work doesn’t fetch the highest prices at auction, and critics, while they admire his achievement, don’t treat him as a master who has transformed the art of his period.