Essay Question 3

Ai Weiwei is an artist plain and simple although unlike most artists he uses the crafts person as a medium to express his art hiring from impoverished areas of beijing in an attempt to give back to the community in some what shape or form. He is a strong believer in the metaphysical aspects of art and how the physical attribute of a piece can be overshadowed by the story and methods behind its creation. He reflects this trait of mind over matter through the designs of some of his works using very minimalist ideas and concepts but turning them into something larger than life simply by giving the art meaning and to give something meaning is to give something power. A good example of this larger than life aspect the piece called Sunflower Seeds. To explain this piece at first glance is simple, its just a room filled with seeds, but that is just looking at it skin deep. When you read further into it and take you time to widen your view you learn that each seed had been carefully meticulously hand crafted with each of the 100,000,000 seeds being moulded, fired, hand painted and fired again you realise the colossal amount of time and effort that was put into such a simple concept. This is the perfect example of the mind/body split between Weiweis' views on the differences of artists and crafts people, with the crafts people being the body/physical form of the work and him the artist being the soul. They are two halves of a whole, a body without a soul is an object but when you give it a soul it becomes art. The craftsmen Weiwei hires creating the vessel and Weiwei himself being the one to give the art its soul and meaning. He is a strong believer of freedom of expression with a lot of his artworks focusing on the oppression in place in china. He has fought to the extent that his protests and expressionism has landed him time in jail but in classic Weiwei fashion when confronted by the officer about his arrest he simply replied “I hope it doesn’t come to that. But I’m ready for it, because I believe the core value of an artist must be to express yourself freely and fight for the freedom of others.”(Ai Weiwei) This core value is what makes his work so inspiring and it is this unwavering soul that he puts into his work that makes every piece he has made so memorable. Weiwei also fights to prevent the slow death of the once proud craftsmen of china and their many techniques.Compared to other artists that somewhat look down on the average crafts person Weiwei appreciates the art of the crafts men and can view them as a completely separate entity to art were as most other artists I had read about such as Grayson perry seems to view craftspeople as somewhat incomplete artists. I feel that this view is what makes Weiwei such and original artist when compared to others artists that do not create their work they refuse to perceive things through the eyes of the crafts person but in Weiweis' separation of the two aspects he has almost transcended the limitations a lot of other artists had set for themselves. He is truly in ever sense of the word a man of the people this almost Robbin Hood Esq aspect to him that makes him such a truly unique artist.

As well as this Ai Weiwei is a man of meticulous craft. Due to his nature of hiring large work forces to craft his artwork he is able to produce things that other artists if left to attempt it would take a lifetime to complete. This means that a lot of his craft techniques are in a way larger than life, he has somewhat relinquished himself from the shackles of modern craft artists and is not limited in his design by the singular type of craft he has chosen. There is literally nothing Weiwei can not create, his limitation is his imagination and that is something he has plenty of. It is this variety to his work that makes him such an interesting artist to research. There is one recurring theme I have found in Weiweis' artwork and that is his rooting to the aspects of traditional Chinese crafts. The hard industrialisation of modern China has somewhat meant the death of Chinese craftsmen and it is this death that Weiwei tries to stop. It is this use of the Chinese craftsmen that allows him to craft things like the flawless dovetail joints in works like the map of china while also being able to do the delicate jade carvings of handcuffs. Weiwei tends to design his works in his Beijing studio while he creates his art in warehouses he rents. This allows Weiwei to hire his large work forces and let them work inside of the warehouses. Rather than being physically involved in the construction of his art, he works as more of a conductor of the craft, Carefully watching and putting in his views on the work so although not being physically involved he is still the driving force behind the creation of the object. He carefully divides individual tasks that would take one person years and splits the workload between his large number of workers. The scale of the workforce of course differs between his pieces with works like Han Jar Overpainted with Coca-Cola Logo, taking a small work force and other works like 3000 crabs taking a monumental amount of workers. The design of Weiweis' works often involve questioning the norm. With his many protest pieces for things such as freedom of speech, something that is very lacking in communist china, as well as things like the heavy industrialisation of China with pieces like coloured vases were he takes priceless vases and submerges them in brightly coloured paint. To some this would e destroying ancient pieces of art in its own way it makes it more beautiful for its unique aspects underlined by the story of the Han dynasty vases that you can see peaking through the lathered paint is a design feature in its self. It is this creation through destruction theme that I particularly love about Ai Weiwei, how even in the face of adversity he is still able to create. This is visible in the creation of Template were the original artwork was a structure made of old Ming and Quin dynasty doors and window panels from houses that had been demolished to further the industrialisation of china, but after exposure to wind and rain the structure fell down but rather than letting the destruction end he work he let it create it. I feel that this is a perfect example that Weiweis craft method is more spiritual that physical and that he allows the story of the piece create it in a way. so unlike other artists that use traditional craft methods to make an object Weiwei uses the life as his main craft technique.

When it comes to Ai weiwei it is almost impossible to pick out a favourite piece of artwork but there are still a few that stand out. One of these piece being a photography piece had had done called Dropping a Han dynasty urn. As the name suggests this piece involves a photo of Weiwei dropping a priceless Urn, the idea in itself being a simple one just a photo of a man dropping an urn but it is so much more than than that. In classic Weiwei fashion its shocking nature of blowing caution to the wind is what makes the simple idea so interesting to look at. On release the piece got mixtures of positive and negative publicity with some calling it ground breaking and others calling it an insult to chines culture and desecration of artifacts but when confronted by antique dealers Weiwei simply responded with the quote "General Mao used to tell us that we can only build a new world if we destroy the old one." (Ai Weiwei). I feel that this was one of Weiweis early protest pieces setting the them for his future pieces with the destruction of the urn symbolising the cultural changes that need to happen in the heavily monitored communist China and how the old dynastic ways of China is something that needs to change and how only by letting go of the past will China be able to live as a truly free county. I personally like this piece because of its simple yet impactful design. aesthetically it is not the most appealing image but delving deeper and examining it for more than it looks the sheer meaning and originality of the idea is truly groundbreaking. This is one of my favourite examples of the spirit of man and how no amount of oppression and demoralisation will suppress our desire for true freedom and equality. Another piece of artwork I like is the memorial piece for the earthquake in the province of Sichuan that left over 80,000 either dead or missing named straight. This piece was developed to be a harsh reminder of the corruption and negligence of the Chinese government were faulty building built with low quality materials and designs got through because certain government officials decided to cut corners. It was this greed that caused the majority of deaths from the earthquake. It was with the remnants of these shoddily built schools that Straight was made. Hundreds of pieces of rebar meticulously hand straightened and arranged in size to create a wave like effect. This 150 ton piece was put on display five years after the incident in the 2013 venice art biennale and was the largest sculpture in the entire show. During the creation of this piece Weiwei made it his personal task to learn all of the names of every victim. I feel that he did this so that in a way he can place all the lost souls in the piece which I feel is what gives the work its sombre tone and in a way it immortalises every victim hopefully giving the familys' that had lost so much some closure on the whole disaster, knowing that their family friends and children live on and did not die in vein. My favourite aspects of this piece is its sheer scale both physically and mentally, the sheer amount of time and effort that was put into and how as stated in the design bloom article "the action of adjusting the pieces in a way metaphorically speaking of the artist trying to make things right." (Andrea Chin). It is this aspect of the art being more than the work of one man but the cumulative efforts of many in a struggle to bring awareness to the fact that this could have been avoided and the people responsible will be brought out into the light, despite their best efforts to cover up the disaster. In a way all of Weiweis art is larger than just one piece. Each meaning is universal giving infinite lessons to learn through the stories that they tell.

In conclusion Weiwei is plain an artist plain and simple. From his involvement as a freedom fighter to his time in prison there is nothing that does not inspire him. Although he is not a man of craft nor design he fills the gaps with the knowledge and experience of the many others that have the privilege to work with him, something that i can truly say would be a life changing experience. He was a pleasure to research and I feel that he has left a lasting impact on me that I shall not forget.

#PDP