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The Brooklyn Museum today became the first in the US to host a public collection point for Legos to send to Ai Weiwei, joining a number of major museums around the world in showing solidarity for the Chinese dissident artist. This morning, a white...

The Brooklyn Museum today became the first in the US to host a public collection point for Legos to send to Ai Weiwei, joining a number of major museums around the world in showing solidarity for the Chinese dissident artist. This morning, a white BMW was parked in front of the museum’s main entrance and, just a few hours later, it was already filled with colorful bricks, courtesy of staff members who were the first to pour in boxes of the plastic toys through the car’s sunroof. The car will remain there through November 29, as the museum, which exhibited his traveling retrospective last year, stated.

Ai Weiwei Collects Lego Blocks by the Beemer-Load at Brooklyn Museum

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1001 Chairs Protest for Ai Weiwei This Weekend by Kyle Chayka Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been missing for 12 days without official charge from the Chinese government. In protest, artists and activists all over the world are planning a global sit-in...

1001 Chairs Protest for Ai Weiwei This Weekend by Kyle Chayka

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been missing for 12 days without official charge from the Chinese government. In protest, artists and activists all over the world are planning a global sit-in this Sunday, April 17 at 1 pm, staking out Chinese embassies with 1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei, a take on Ai Weiwei’s 2007 “Fairytale” project in Kassel, Germany.

All over the world, protesters will bring chairs to Chinese embassies and consulates and “sit peacefully” in support of Ai. Spearheaded by New York City’s own Creative Time, the organization writes that “1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei calls for [Ai’s] immediate release, supporting the right of artists to speak and work freely in China and around the world.” See the event’s Facebook page for details, including gathering places and times all over the world…. READ MORE.

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The Last Rant

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ALEC ASH

on Ai Weiwei’s electronic provocations.

imageCollage by Lisa Jane Persky includes an image by stunned (CC)
Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei’s Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006-2009
Edited and translated by Lee Ambrozy
MIT Press, April 2011. 241 pp.

On May 28, 2009, the readers of artist and activist Ai Weiwei’s blog — hosted on Sina, a popular Chinese internet portal — logged onto blog.sina.com.cn/aiweiwei to find the message “This blog has already been closed. If you have queries, please dial 95105670.” That message is still there, although the number has changed. Dialing it takes you to an unfolding origami of recorded options that would frustrate the most hardy call center veteran. When human contact is finally made, an explanation as to why the blog was shut down is not forthcoming. Nor, for those who’ve been following Ai’s career, is it necessary.

Ai the artist wooed controversy long before he became known as a political activist. Son of the poet Ai Qing — a prominent literary figure in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) before he was denounced as a rightist in 1957 — Ai Weiwei has been on the fringes of free speech and democracy activism since the late seventies. In Beijing, he made a name for himself as a counterculture artist and architect, co-curating one exhibition with the English title “Fuck Off.” In October 2005, as one of Sina’s first celebrity bloggers, he found a new means by which to rock the boat.

In the months before his blog was censored, Ai used it to popularize a “citizen investigation” that aimed to document the names of the thousands of students who died in the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, many as a result of “tofu dregs” construction that saw schools collapse while cadres pocketed the surplus from skimped building costs. Given the blog’s loudmouthed criticism of Chinese authorities across a range of other issues, and the routine censorship of other internet sites, it was no surprise that Ai’s platform got the axe.

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Ai Weiwei’s Portrait Projected on NYC Chinese Consulate by Kyle Chayka On this past Friday May 20, Cuban artist Geandy Pavon did a guerrilla projection protest for Ai Weiwei. In this work, called “Nemesis Ai Weiwei: The Elusiveness of Being”, Pavon...

Ai Weiwei’s Portrait Projected on NYC Chinese Consulate by Kyle Chayka

On this past Friday May 20, Cuban artist Geandy Pavon did a guerrilla projection protest for Ai Weiwei. In this work, called “Nemesis Ai Weiwei: The Elusiveness of Being”, Pavon projected Ai’s face onto the blank street-side facade of the New York City Chinese Consulate. Click through for video documentation of the project…. READ MORE.

We also have a Q+A with the artist, Geandy Pavon.

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blackjackchamp.com

Arrested Chinese Blackjack Guru Ai WeiWei also an Artist and Activist

Is that an amazing headline or what? Ai Weiwei’s talents on the blackjack table are often relegated to brief asides at best in profiles of the artist – apparently he picked it up when he was first living in New York in the 1980s – but the New York region blackjack community has also spoken out against his disappearance. One could find this aspect of his life apt for comparison with the politics of his artistic career – Ai likes high-risk games? – but it seems trivial in light of his current status.

ai weiwei

“We Need to Ai Weiwei”: The Ai Weiwei Question on Chinese Social Media

MANILA, PHILIPPINES — What has the response to Ai Weiwei’s tax case been like in China? We’ve seen the thrilling surge of netizens lending over a million dollars to the artist, and he recently made a deposit while he contests the bill. The artist has returned to Twitter, posting actively once more. Many reports have emphasized that Ai’s name is blocked on searches on Sina Weibo, but, as with the Wenzhou train collision last year, netizens are using images to circumvent censorship and show their support. READ MORE

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nytimes.com

New York Times: Ai Weiwei and the Artist's Role in China
hyperallergic

The New York Times presents four perspectives from different scholars — from art history to political science — on Ai Weiwei and his relationship to what’s going on in current Chinese politics.

jnomics

An interesting read and well structured debate.  Question though: Practically speaking, is it the case that artists have the ability to impact political change or are they simply transmitters of the cultural reality brought about by a particular political regime or system? Art does not transform economies (though it does create markets for the products of artists). Art does not impact the flow or direction of business.  And economics and business are the primary motivators of political change improvements in the quality of human rights in the modern world. Economics and business motivate the behaviors of our governments, and incentivize the behaviors of mass populations.  Where a developing nation needs an upwardly mobile class structure to thrive, laws and economics structures may be altered to enable such behavior.  Obviously not always, but over the long term this seems to be the case. This is all to say, it’s not a conservative ideal, or a cynical perspective that makes one believe in the equality and forward movement that free markets enable (something China is moving towards).   

J N O M I C S 

hyperallergic

Although I agree with your underlying point, I’d like to believe that while art may not transform economic systems on its own, an increasing amount of artists are interrogating art’s relation to political economies. Art has the potential to shape social energies that form in response to economic realities, and that’s a big part of its power. I think the problem in regards to art’s involvement with political change is its murky relationship with capitalism: the blurry line between the market and the audience makes political art harder to gain traction. This can be problematic, but I remain optimistic that artists go beyond merely serving as “transmitters of the cultural reality brought about by a particular political regime or system” – artists can give voice to alternative perspectives to a political system. That power to give voice can help shape what brings about the political change sought.

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