Ai Weiwei: Middle Finger, Tiananmen Square.

Thanks at least in part to global pressure, not only from ambassadors and human rights activists, but from leaders in the art world and people like New York City's Mayor Bloomberg, Chinese authorities agreed to release the artist Ai Weiwei. But why would the Chinese arrest their most famous artist? Take a look at Ai Weiwei's work and its a pretty easy guess. Ai Weiwei uses contemporary art as a vehicle to express singularly bold social criticism.

Middle Finger Tiananmen Square, photo: Ai Weiwei

One piece that put Ai Weiwei on the wrong side of Chinese authorities was his installation, Remembering, at the Haus der Kundst museum in Munich. The piece commemorated the tragic deaths of school children during the Sichuan, China earthquake of 2008. 

 Remembering, Installation, Ai Weiwei 2009

It is widely believed that the reason so many school children were killed was because the schools that collapsed on top of them during the earthquake were poorly constructed due to corruption. Ai Weiwei visited Sichuan after the earthquake where he observed debris littered with children's school things. That inspired him to create a message using 9,000 colorful children's backpacks to spell out, "She lived happily for seven years in this world", a quote from the mother of one of the lost children.

Remembering, Installation, Ai Weiwei 2009

Like memories developing over time the message, placed on an outdoor wall behind trees was slowly revealed as the season changed and the trees lost their leaves.

Remembering, Installation, Ai Weiwei 2009

Another Quick Look at Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry TEASER from Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry on Vimeo.

Ai Weiwei: "I'm Home, I'm Fine, I Can't Talk."

 Ai Weiwei Returns to Studio After Release, photo: David Gray/Reuters

World renowned Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei who was detained in April by Chinese authorities has just been released on bail after being held for 81 days. 

China's state media claims that Ai Weiwei confessed to "economic crimes" and has agreed to pay the back taxes they say he owes. His family denies the charges. When asked if his probation will allow him to use twitter, (Ai Weiwei's was known for his popular tweets) Ai laughed gently and apologized for not being able to speak.

 Public Enjoying 100 Million Porcelain Sunflowers at The Tate 

photo Tony Kyriacou/Rex Features

Well known outside of China and perhaps especially in Britain for his recent show Sunflower Seeds at the Tate in London, Ai Weiwei received worldwide popular support while under arrest.

Ai Weiwei Not Talking To British Reporter

Sign Petition to Release Ai Weiwei

Members of the international arts community are petitioning the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China to release artist, Ai Weiwei. You can sign the petition, started by the Guggenheim Foundation, here. 

Link to: Petition for the Release of Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei

Change.org, host of the petition, has been under cyber attack from China in an effort to shut down the site and stop the petition. Change.org engineers are working around the clock to keep the site up.

Protests for Ai Weiwei

 "What can they do to me? 

Nothing more than to banish, kidnap, to imprison me. 

Perhaps they could fabricate my disappearance into thin air, 

but they don't have any creativity or imagination. 

And they lack both joy and the ability to fly."

Ai Weiwei's last blog entry before his April 3 detention.

 Photo: Elisa Haberer

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has still not been seen by his friends and family. Officials claim that he is under investigation for "economic crimes" but the police have still not informed his family regarding his detention from the Beijing airport two weeks ago. Colleagues of Ai also remain missing.

 Artists and activists protest the detention of Ai Weiwei in Hong Kong.

Photograph: Tyrone Siu/Reuters The Guardian

According to the British newspaper The Guardian a Canadian curator organized artists around the world to protest Ai Weiwei's detention by taking chairs into the streets and sitting in silent protest. This idea stemmed from the 2007 installation, Fairytale, of Ai Weiwei's where he took 1,001 Qing Dynasty wooden chairs and 1,001 Chinese citizens to Germany. The German curator of that show, Roger Brugel, sat in protest outside of the Chinese Embassy in Berlin. Said Brugel, "It's crucial to exert pressure now, before they come up with a verdict."

Fairytale, Installation, Ai Weiwei 2007

photo: Galerie Urs Meile

 

Censored in China, Ai Weiwei's Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, has just been made available through MIT Press.

Free Ai Weiwei!

 Chinese artist Ai Weiwei

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is still missing following his detainment Sunday morning at the Beijing airport (see previous post). According to Aljazeera Amnesty International, The United States, Britain and Germany have called for his release. You can sign a "twitition" (online petition) here: Free Ai Weiwei.

Meanwhile please take a few moments to appreciate the art of Ai Weiwei. Currently, exhibiting at the Tate Modern in London is Ai Weiwei's The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei Sunflower Seeds featuring 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds. Or watch the Ai Weiwei slideshow currently up on Slate.com.

Ai Weiwei, Sunflower Seeds 2010

Photocredit: BBC

Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei Detained.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was detained Sunday at the Beijing airport and is still missing. Even his outstanding international reputation, he has a sculpture exhibition scheduled in Manhattan next month, was not enough to stop the Chinese from arresting him.

Ai Weiwei in his Bejing Studio March 7, 2011

Photograph by Andrew Jacobs, published April 3, 2011, New York Times

Human rights advocates believe that Weiwei's arrest is part of the Chinese government's latest crackdown on human rights with arrests of lawyers, bloggers and dissidents. Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch describes this as China's "attempt to redefine the limits of what kind of criticism is tolerable." Apparently Ai Weiwei's freedom of expression is intolerable to Chinese authorities and this is far from his first brush with the law.

Weiwei was raised in a labor camp in China's cold western deserts when his father, the poet Ai Qing, was exiled for being the "wrong kind" of intellectual. In 2009 Weiwei was seriously beaten by police the night before he was scheduled to testify on behalf of a fellow dissident. Larry Warsh, the founder of AW Asia, the contemporary Chinese art organization instrumental in organizing Weiwei's show next month in New York, said after the current arrest, "Weiwei is among the greatest living artists and thinkers, and a globally respected champion of human rights." which seems to be just what is getting him into so much trouble.


Ai Weiwei on TED Talks

Criticism is one of the primary roles of an artist in society but living in a police state makes this critique a particular challenge. Considering Ai Weiwei's success he could keep quiet and easily live in comfort like China's burgeoning nouveaux-riche class and yet he says, "as a human being, member of society, you must clearly state your mind. It's a responsibility … it is the way you identify yourself otherwise you don't know who you are and why you are here. I don't have a choice, it's the way I live."

Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo, Ai Weiwei, 1994

source: New York Times,  The Age, TED Talks