Ai Weiwei is a widely acclaimed artist, an innovative designer, an influential architect, a visionary urbanist, a competitive cook, and even a great hairdresser. He is also a compelling and disputatious writer who knows how to address and to rally a wide audience, voicing his own dissatisfaction, and that of his fellow countrymen, at being confronted on a daily basis with the alarming glibness of a rampant Chinese society and its disquieting political representation. -- Chris Dercon, Director, Tate Modern Blogging produces reality rather than simply representing it. Ai Weiwei is among our very best guides to this new terrain: one of the greatest living international artists and a fighter for more freedom. Ai Weiwei's daily blog entries, gathered here, will make the reader see the world in a different and startlingly original light. -- Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director of Exhibitions and Programmes and Director of International Projects, Serpentine Gallery, London The works and words of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who lived in New York during formative years of his artistic development, seem to arise not only from the venerable cultural traditions of his homeland but also from those commenced in colonial America with the 'Common Sense' political activism of Thomas Paine, further fused with the trickster antics of the Native American Coyote character and the lingering specter of Andy Warhol's media savvy. It remains to be seen what will become of this broadly transnational artist amidst the turbulent global culture of our time, but he is not easily ignored. -- Jock Reynolds, Henry J. Heinz II Director, Yale University Art Gallery
Ai Weiwei is one of today's most important and controversial artists. His recent exhibitions include "Sunflower Seeds" at the Tate Modern, London, a vast assemblage of handcrafted porcelain sunflower seeds; and six fiberglass dioramas depicting his 81-day imprisonment in 2011, shown at a Venice gallery in parallel with the 2013 Venice Biennale. He was a designer of the famous "Bird's Nest" stadium of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Lee Ambrozy is the Editor of artforum.com.cn, Artforum's Chinese language website. Lee Ambrozy is the Editor of artforum.com.cn, Artforum's Chinese language website.
This work is invaluable as a critical perspective and chronicle
while also being an extraordinary contributor to...the contemporary
Chinese political landscape.
*Building Design*
In terms of illuminating the dynamics of protest in our
understanding of one of global culture's most percipient
commentators, this text is highly recommended.
*THE*
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