NOTE
“Art should be like a gravel in the shoe”
- Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s exhibition, with title in reference to Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
- Asimov wrote a spoof scientific paper about a chemical compound that could time travel
- Parallels Ai’s commentary on why we value “real” over replica
- art museum exhibition with themes of activism, rebellion, and questioning traditional value systems through subversion, sensationalism, and arguably outrageous actions of destruction
- Replication, sculpture, old found objects, the mundane memorialized
- a diverse range of works, meanings, and mediums; I went knowing nothing about him but it was a very impactful experience
- Works commenting on the Cultural Revolution; Ai’s father, a renowned poet, was exiled to a camp near the Gobi desert
anti-ruin - the antithesis of ruin
- Pulverized neolithic vessels into dust, accelerating the natural timeline of decay
- Covered Han Dynasty vases with automotive paint
- “calls into question the identity and authenticity of the object (…) the paint obscures and alters the ceramic, which is still there underneath, unchanged, although wearing a different guise”
- Added the Coca-Cola logo (one of the first U.S. corporations to have products sold in China) to a Han-dynasty ceramic, violating “the immutable line between past and present for which a relic is venerated”
- intentionally “full of ignorance”, redefines the initial significance of the artifact
- once-sacred fragments lost to the apathy of time
- Relics: surviving remnants of the past; defined by their relationship with time
- the quality of their preservation is representative of our changing value systems
lost and found
- During China’s construction boom of the 1990s, traditional hutong neigborhoods were demolished, unearthing ancient artifacts
- Ai collected many ancient artifacts and used them in sculpture
- Sculptures carefully formed out of Qing Dynasty furniture
value, material disruption
- Ai subverts utilitarian function of classical furniture, i.e. three-legged tables
- Bike sculptures - challenging what we view as building blocks for architecture
- Wood sculptures with interlocking joints, no glue or nails
- Everyday objects sculpted with marble, a material traditionally associated with wealth and status - questions what is valuable in our society
activism, resistance
- Commentary on the suppression of intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution
- Recreation of a viral selfie he took and posted while being arrested, in lego
- Recreation of famous painting, with a cherub replaced by a panda, a commentary on censorship in China
- Since 2008, his studio in Beijing has been surrounded by more than two dozen surveillance cameras
- Had a life-size recreation of his prison room where he was held for 81 days
thoughts
- reminder of the power and impact of art
- it helps people understand scale, pain
- it makes people question the way they view the world
- it allows people to better understand differing experiences of life
- The desecration of “valued” old relics is hard to stomach but also very effective commentary on what society deems as valuable
- Paired with the elevation of mundane objects and replicas
- Very clever, playful
- determining perspective with middle finger instead of thumb