“My artistic language is universal and deals with themes about contemporary politics and society using symbols understood by everyone in every part of the world. I am fascinated by the unstable and dangerous sides of art…”
Quote From Li Wei. I copied this as it is a very brief summary of his work and the reasons he does it.
The only use of editing in Li Wei's photographs is the photoshop removal of the scaffolding and props he used to get into the position he is in. Although almost every shot could be lethal. Le Wei uses mirrors to create some of the illusions in his photographs. Mirrors are symbolic in China. There is even a proverb 'take history as a mirror'.
Li Wei's imagery as a collection gives a sense of invincibility. Like a character in a video game. Wei is referred to as a performance artist rather than a photographer as he places himself in the scenarios he is capturing. Using acrobatics and strength to hold himself in such positions.
The Gao Brother, based in Beijing, use many different forms of art to make political comments on China. They incorporate Christian iconography in a lot of their work along with iconography of Mao. Since 2000 the brothers have organised performances of people hugging each other.
A lot of their work seems rather sexual, and particularly focuses on the form of a hermaphrodite. Which is interesting as pornographic imagery is highly restricted in China. The brothers use a lot of nudity as they believe only when naked can we be completely human.
A student led protest exposing splits in political leadership. The government responded by sending the military in with rifles on unarmed civilians. Due to lack of information from China a lot is unknown, death toll could be from 100's -1000's. The protest was triggered by the death of Hu Yaobang.
The Gao brothers use positivity in their work to comment on politics and society. Symbols of hope and togetherness etc.
Ai Weiwei uses his art to comment on his experience in China. He uses a diverse range of mediums to express himself, most recently an album called 'The Divine Comedy'
He did a project based on an earthquake in May 2008 in Sichuan, where 5,000 students died, but little was done to find out who they were and the deaths were completely preventable. Weiwei did a tribute to all that were eventually named.
He's also done work based on freedom, placing a bouquet of flowers in a bicycle basket until he was given the right to travel freely again. This was in 2013.
And he has done documentaries based on corrupt policing/government.
Following Ai's arrest fans of his started a street art campaign to free him.
Ai Weiwei - Never Sorry
United Expression Media
Directed by Alison Klayman
I really enjoyed this film it basically just confirmed everything I've read about Weiwei online. I took notes that I felt might be relevant to my essay and they are as follows:
Ai Weiwei has little involvement in the manufacturing of his work, he mostly contributes the idea.
The dropping of the ern was mentioned a lot in the film. The concept is that Weiwei loves his culture but it needs to change.
He's career properly set off in 2003
He is considered to of surpassed the role of an artist
And considers himself a chess player waiting for his opponent to make the next move.
Ai Weiwei is much more aggressive than other political artists in China in his work. He stood up to the Beijing Olympics after he designed the centre piece due to the authorities banning locals in partaking in the event. This quote sums up his reasons for boycotting the event:
'When I helped conceive Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium, I wanted to represent freedom, not autocracy: China must change' - Ai Weiwei
His opinion wasn't vocalised in China and Ai Weiwei didn't really emerge in China, as an activist anyway, until the earthquake in Sichuan. When Weiwei fought for information that the government with held from the public. As a response to this the government shut down his blog that WeiWei was using as a tool to inform people of the students names that lost their lives in the earthquake. The government tried to cover up the sheer total, as their deaths were unnecessary. It was due to the cheaply made government funded building the students were studying in. They also installed surveillance in his home studio.
During an interview about this Weiwei was asked why are you so fearless. To which he admitted he is extremely fearful and went on to say:
'If you don't act, the danger becomes stronger'
Weiwei's father was also an artist, a poet in fact. and like father like son he also was very vocal about his opinion on how China should be run and unfortunately was imprisoned for his expression. For many years, in fact. The family was then exiled. This makes me question why Weiwei would actively and intentionally follow in his fathers footsteps, after seeing his father go through so much.
Whilst filming a documentary about the charge of a fellow earthquake activist the police assaulted Ai Weiwei so severely he was hospitalised and had to have brain surgery. So as a response Weiwei did a film in which he got several people to say, in there own dialect 'fuck you, motherland' ending with Ai Weiwei. Whilst all this was going on Weiwei was putting a show together in Munich entitled 'So Sorry'. It was a response to the Sichuan disaster. Spectacularly using 9,000 bags to spell out 'She lived happily for seven years in this world'
Ai Weiwei's "Remembering" and the Politics of Dissent
Text by JP McMahon
Critics say that Weiwei is 'too interested in reducing Chinese complexities into black and white'
'Once you've experienced freedom you can't forget that feeling
Sunflower seed installation: 100 million handmade and painted sunflower seeds in the Tate Modern. Which both reflect the diversity of ideas that exsist within China and resemble what Weiwei is doing on twitter.
Weiwei was jailed for 81 days without a real charge. He had two guards with him at all times and no one really knew where he was for a while. The authorities said it was down to his family fiddling books to avoid taxes. But this is another government cover up. Not only was he incarcerated but the government charged him over 12 million yuan.Many of he's fans, however, generously donated money to Weiwei to help with this fine.
Had a Tutorial with Mat and he suggested looking at artists who tackle political issues but in countries where they could get killed for doing so. He gave me a list of artists from China, Russia and South America. I'm going to start buy looking at an artist, and there work and then find out what the situation is with their country, and why its so extreme.
