Ai Weiwei
SM 4146 Portfolio & Practicum 2011 SemB
Chung Yuk Yu 51804978
Leung Wing Tak 51209680
Yuen Shuk Fan 51809163
Content
• Introduction
• History
• Awards
• Recent Activities
• Reference
Ai Weiwei (艾未未)
• born 1957, Beijing
• Chinese artist, curator,
architectural designer, social
commentator, and activist.
• Influenced by artists such as
Marcel Duchamp, he began to
critically address
artistic traditions and
conventions.
• marked by a pursuit of honesty
• famed for his tongue in cheek criticisms, his satires of
traditional culture and his unending social responsibility
with his witty and iconoclastic sculptures, performances,
photographs and installations.
History
• In 1978, founder of the early avant garde art group the "Stars“
• Comments and activities for the liberty of speech
• In 1993, establish the experimental artists' Beijing East Village
published a series of three books about this new generation of artists:
Black Cover Book (1994), White Cover Book (1995), and Gray Cover Book
(1997)
• In 2006,designed a private residence in
the Hudson River Valley of Upstate New York
- interviewed by the New York Times
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/02/09/world/asia/1247466947801/
an-interview-with-ai-weiwei.html
• In 2010, Wallpaper (magazine) nominated the home for its Wallpaper
Design Awards category
• artistic consultant for design for the Beijing
National Stadium(Bird’s Nest) for the 2008
Olympics
• In 2008,Ai Weiwei supported an
investigation into student asualties
in the Sichuan earthquake
- exhibition “So sorry” in Munich
The NewYork Times interview with him
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/02/09/wo
rld/asia/1247466947801/an-interview-with-aiweiwei.html
Awards
• In 2010 Ai Weiwei received an Honorary
Doctorate Degree from the Faculty of Politics and Social
Science, University of Gent, Belgium.
• Received Das Glas der Vernunft (The Prism of
Reason), Kassel Citizen Award, Kassel, Germany.
• ranked 13 in Art Review's guide to the 100
most powerful figures in contemporary art
Recently
• November 2010, Ai was placed under house arrest by the Chinese police
• to prevent the planned party to mark the demolition of his newly built
Shanghai studio from taking place
• the government said the newly-completed studio would be knocked down
because it was illegal
• In the end, the party took place without Weiwei's presence; his supporters
feasted on river crab, an allusion to "harmony"
•An asteroid 83598 named Ai Weiwei
•Praise his achievements
Reference
• http://www.daylife.com/topic/Ai_Weiwei
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_Weiwei
• http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/02/09/
world/asia/1247466947801/an-interviewwith-ai-weiwei.html
• http://newsflavor.com/world/asia/ai-weiweia-famous-chinese-artist-is-under-housearrest/