Ai Weiwei
“An artwork unable to make people feel uncomfortable or to feel different is not one worth creating. This is the difference between the artist and the fool.”
Ai Weiwei is known as much for his activism as he is for his art, using his varied practice to advocate for democracy, freedom of expression and social justice. Born in Beijing in 1957, his father was deemed an enemy of the communist government and he grew up in exile in the remote northwest of China. A sculptor, painter, filmmaker, photographer and poet, his work is held in numerous international museums. He was the subject of a major retrospective at the Royal Academy in 2015. In the same year his sculpture series "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads" sold for £3.4 million at Phillips in London.
Weiwei was born in Beijing in 1957, the son of poet Ai Qing. In 1961 his family was exiled to the far northwest of China, not returning to Beijing until 1976. In 1978 Ai enrolled at the Beijing Film Academy to study animation. He became part of the first generation of Chinese students to study abroad, living in the United States from 1981-93. During this period, he became acquainted with the work of Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. Their influence encouraged Ai to explore the potential of conceptual art by altering readymade objects. Ai returned to China in 1993, and relocated to Europe in 2015.
In Ai's work, there is no distinction between art and politics. Among his most recognisable pieces are the Coloured Vases, in which ancient handmade ceramics are coated with modern industrial paint, exploring ideas of cultural vandalism, the tension between tradition and modernity, and the commodification of history. In 2010, he filled the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern with over 100 million handmade porcelain sunflower seeds in a critique of consumerism and conformity.
