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The MAC (Museum of Art & Culture Lake Macquarie) has just opened Guan Wei: A Case Study - an exhibition of Guan Wei's work with an accompanying case-study publication geared specifically towards Year 12 Visual Arts students.

The exhibition runs until 5 April.
More information >

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GUAN WEI: A CASE STUDY - ARC ONE Gallery

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The MAC (Museum of Art & Culture Lake Macquarie) has just opened Guan Wei: A Case Stud y - an exhibition of Guan Wei's work with an accompanying case-study publication geared specifically towards Year 12 Visual Arts students. The exhibition runs until 5 April. More i

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How do artists communicate meanings to audiences using materials, techniques and visual codes in strategic and considered ways? Refer to a range of artists and artworks in your response.

In a contemporary world which is influenced by so many diverse cultures and political events, artists seek to communicate meanings and interpretations of their world using various materials, techniques and visual codes in strategic and considered ways. Artists who particularly refer to the changing world and hence communicate the implications these have on them as artists include Ai WeiWei, He Xiangyu and Gonkar Gyatso. Through the structural frame, artworks by these three artists are made up of signs, symbols and visual codes which are communicating these meanings to the audience. These signs, symbols and visual codes include the materials from which the work is made, the techniques used by the artist, and the imagery and symbolism used to communicate meaning.

Gonkar Gyatso is a Tibetan born British working artist, born in 1961 in Lhasa, Tibet. Upon his moving to London in the late 1990s on a scholarship to the Chelsea School of Art and Design, Gyatso attained his MA in fine art; with his experience in London inevitably opening Gyatso's eyes to the culture and how it differs greatly from Tibetan culture. Gyatso has become most known for his use of pop images and iconography, with his work satirising world politics and events which inevitably "make fun of dull aspects of life". Two works which Gyatso pushes to communicate meanings of cultural and social change within his world are 'Buddha@hotmail' (2006) and 'My Identity' (2003). Both works explore the impact of the Cultural Revolution on his traditional Tibetan culture and religion, which were both forbidden in his growing up. The most significant features of Gyatso's material practice includes forming religious shapes/models out of stickers to support his conceptual practice (evident in 'Buddha@hotmail' and other works) and self portraiture through photography.

Gyatso has held exhibition in galleries and museums all over the world, including the UK, Germany, Istanbul, Israel, China, USA and Australia. Each audiences' perceptions of the work differ for each country. For example, Chinese viewers are historically connected to the reference to the religious practice of Buddhism, and feel the awe of the work as it expresses ideas that are very much familiar to them; through the connection to the drastic results of the Cultural Revolution, and how the modern world is therefore heavily reliant on mass production and therefore over consumption. As Gyatso is referring his works subject as "coming out of concerns that are shaping our times", many audiences feel the importance of his work. The pop/modernistic style of Gyatso's works brings satire in light of the heaviness of his conceptual message. Therefore audiences experience works which inevitably reflect their past which may have been known or unknown to them, and allows them to recognise their modern world today and how this is impacting on such a strong, religious culture. Audiences and art critics' opinions and interpretations are very similar, deriving purely from the title of the work, the materials used and the conceptual meaning and how this impacts on them as an individual. They can often connect profoundly to the contemporary world that is perhaps alluded towards the disconnection of religion and traditional cultural ideals. Art critic Maura Reilly vividly connects to both of Gyatso's works through the idea of the damaging impacts of major political events, i.e. the Cultural Revolution, on the traditions of Tibet. She also offers the interpretation of Gyatso encapsulating his "newfound sense of self.", particularly in 'My Identity'. She admits to realising that Gyatso is representing himself on behalf of the Tibetan population in regards to the ever changing world not affecting his identity but rather the practice and expression of religious tradition. Explained by Reilly as "his status as an artist is also unchanging, as his cultural identity", this concept is evident in both 'Buddha@hotmail and 'My Identity" - 'Buddha@hotmail' through the shape of a Buddha made materially with stickers which represent mass consumption and hence a change of cultural ways, and 'My Identity' through the portraiture of himself in four different periods of his life and the "word 'Tibet' tattooed in black ink on his upper arm".

Gyatso's work poses the continues concept of expressing his world (and therefore questioning of impact of the Cultural Revolution) through materials, techniques and symbolic codes which inevitably derive from arranging them in strategic and considered ways. An art critic from the Rubin Museum in New York City concretes this concept of his world becoming more and more distant from the traditional culture of Tibet: "Gyatso's frustrations with being disconnected from the cultural observances of previous generations of Tibetans is a recurring theme in his work, which often features his trademark Buddhas constructed out of collaged colorful stickers and cutouts from pop culture magazines".

Gonkar Gyatso's 'Buddha@hotmail' was created in 2006, using the materials of stickers and pencil on treated paper, and measuring 28 x 20 inches. 'Buddha @hotmail' is dramatically influenced by the ramifications of the Cultural Revolution, including the banning of the Buddhism religion, emergence of the West into the economy and culture, and hence the coming of the Technological Revolution. Gyatso has carefully planned and considered how to portray something so close to him that was evidently taken from him and generations older than him, and replacing it with an unknown way of life. 'Buddha@hotmail's concept speaks for itself in the title, indicating the mergence of traditional religious ideals with a contemporary idea that derived from the technological revolution. The use of hotmail to represent the influence of Western culture is through a universally recognised address that represents modern communication and technology. There has been strategic and considered planning of the materials, where the plastic and playful nature of the stickers is juxtaposed with the subject matter which is sacred and traditional. The material of stickers also indicates that this religion has now been influenced by Western life as stickers are mass produced and commercialised objects, a huge facet of Western culture. Gyatso explains the influence of the Cultural Revolution on his traditional religion and identity through materials, signs and symbols in 'Buddha@hotmail' as "we are all repositories of our time and place and I think the work cannot help but reveal the politics and cultures that have shaped me".

'My Identity' was photographed and made an instillation in 2003. 'My Identity' was too exploring the notion of an artists world being immensely influenced by diverse cultures and events, which comes through in the visual codes, symbols, materials and techniques of this work. This photographic installation showcases the artist in four different forms as a Tibetan artist, from four different time periods of the artists' life. Through this on the surface concept, Gyatso is ultimately presenting a small biography of himself whilst portraying a voice for many Tibetans who have similar circumstance and shifts in their lifetime. The first photograph depicts Gyatso before the arrival of Han Chinese in Tibet, prior to 1950. It shows the traditional and cultural beginnings of Gyatso's life through the depiction of him dressed in a traditional Tibetan robe, painting a buddha (the buddha favoured by Tibetans in exile) as a traditional Tibetan artist of his time would. Gyatso told that he had "never personally experienced this", but it is a metaphor for the roots of his tradition, and too the beginnings that many Tibetan's like him began with. The second photograph shows him as an artist during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). He is dressed in a Chinese communist uniform surrounded by walls covered with newspapers (like many of the Chinese homes at that time which signaled the party's rejection of bourgeois values). Gyatso is therefore performing the role of a uniformed Red Guard painter in Tibet under Chinese law. The Buddha that was previously shown on the canvas is instead replaced with a portrait of a smiling Mao, representing Gyatso's youth during the Cultural Revolution and the propaganda influence. The third image is of Gyatso during his exile in Dharamsala from that expanded from 1992-96. Gyatso is shown as living in a refugee camp in Dharamsala, surrounded by fragile, congregated iron walls and "dreaming of an independent Tibet ruled by the Dalai Lama". His final image in the series of four is his arrival in London in 1966, representing the "new Gyatso", i.e. a Tibetan in-exile living in London. The bare white space of the room recalls the plain minimalist white cube of gallery space that is typical for an artist working in "The West". Gyatso concludes his works with the statement that "I believe one day Tibet will be independent; we are a unique culture that demands a unique governing structure and set of moral codes. However, I don't feel that day is near" , linking back to his conceptual practice of Tibetan cultural shifts and recognition of tradition.

He Xiangyu was born in 1986 in Liaoning Province, China. He refers to his contemporary world and the changing ways of society and culture through specific materials, techniques and visual signs and symbols. One main project which exemplified this concept was 'The Cola Project', an installation which challenged the form of Coca Cola, expressing it within the context of its impact on traditional Chinese culture (a significant feature of the artists conceptual and material practice). He's artworks, including 'The Cola Project', can be seen as artworks of Political Pop, where it demonstrates the similarities between the ideological power of advertising and Cultural Revolution propaganda. He was also greatly influenced by Joseph Beuys from the Fluxus movement, because of the political, economic and artistic exchanges between China and East Germany in the 1970s and 80s which consequently brought consumerism and western ideals of living into China. This influence is seen in the way the work is presented to the audience as being very deliberate and considered by inserting his own body into the work via the jade skeleton based on his own skeleton. This influence links to his overt and explicit references to the labour of its production (and its further implications) - a major theme and key meaning in his installation.

'Cola Project' was first exhibited in 2008 in Pear Lam Gallery, Shanghai. The audience is at first discomforted by the smell of the sludge that appears on the gallery floor, however is drawn closer and closer throughout the exhibition to the idea of consumerism and mass production, and therefore the intense Chinese labour that is put behind the making of products such as Coca Cola - such a globally recognised and mass produced good. The audience is therefore moved and left questioning the implications that the modern world is having on the country, and inevitably the people that have to leave traditions behind and enter the reality of the ever changing contemporary world. An art critic from 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art has seen the 'Cola Project' as the material practice being very successful in its portraying of mass production as a representative of implications of Western culture in an ever changing world. They state that "no longer the legendary Cola with fascinating image and great popularity, but its true constituents as well as potential corrosion it may cause on the human body". The critic alludes to it being "definitely a paradox as well as a dislocation...where we always believe in the power of mass production, but it has covered its harmful property and made it invisible to us", evidently supporting the statement that through portraying the impacts of contemporary world for He, he is able to communicate these meanings in strategic and considered ways - using the material of Coke as a metaphor and the technique of making it into a different form.

'The Cola Project' is an installation that exhibits separate works spreading across floors of the gallery, all in different mediums, ultimately connected to the conventional ideals associated with Coca-Cola. On one level, a 2 tones of coal like substance is covering an expanse of the gallery floor. He bought 60,000 2.25 litre bottles of coca cola, and hired factory works to boil up the material, which ended up turning into a crystalised black, tarry resin like substance. Another element includes a skeleton carved out of white jade from his home town in North East China, based exactly on X-rays of the artists' own skeleton. Whilst the skeleton is tarnished and in its pure white jade, precious state, the pelvis and part of the femur have been boiled in coca cola and hence are brown and discoloured. Each component of the installation links back to the idea of mass production and Chinese labour, inevitably a result of the Cultural Revolution. The sludge of boiled Coca Cola is a representation of the over-consumption of materials, i.e. mass produced objects such as Coca Cola is taking over the demands of the country and hence Chinese labourers are forced to work harder and for longer in order to keep up with these expectations. The world has drawn away from traditional customs and ways and is very focused on the production process and providing obsessive objects for the rapidly advancing society. This link is made by the boiling of thousands of litres of Coca Cola, and the way the substance is formed in a 'dump' like shape is suggesting that this ultimum of the modern world has just been dumped on society in a large mass, and now is unescapable and the centre of the modern world. He describes his choice to use Coca Cola in his installation because of the profound impact it has had on traditional aspects of China, as "Cola has swept into the ancient country that has always drunk tea and admired nature, found its way into common households in rural and urban areas and become especially welcomed by the younger groups who are crazy about the new and original.". The jade skeleton carving is a traditional practice in Chinese culture, and therefore the skeleton has symbolic meaning towards the precious state of the skeleton and link with culture. The pelvis and part of the femur which are slightly decayed emphasises the idea which runs throughout the installation of decaying of society and their people through the overwork of Chinese labourers as a result of a rapidly modernising society, which proceeds to put consumerism and a modernistic approach sometimes before tradition.

Another artist which communicates his meanings and interpretations of the ever changing world through considered and strategic uses of materials, techniques and visual codes/symbols is Chinese artist Ai WeiWei. Born in 1957 in Beijing, Ai's works draw upon cultural and political conflicts within China at his current time, which often provokes Chinese conventions and political ideas and leads him to being arrested by the government for his works. The Cultural Revolution was a major impact on his works, through experiences of his fathers and a key relation of his personal culture with his country. Constantly challenging the conventions of what ideals can be expressed by law in China, Ai seeks to communicate his perception of the ever changing world and the impact the cultures and political events have on traditional ways. Two works that explicitly refer to this is 'Sunflower Seeds' (2010) and '@Large Alcatraz (With Wind)' (2014). The most significant conceptual features is communicating of his world and many alike in China as a result of the Cultural Revolution, and hence the impact that the allowance of Western trade into China has had on the people and the tradition. Ai's most significant material practice is the use of found objects and manipulating them to suit his conceptual ideas, or the creation of works through help of every day Chinese citizens.

'Sunflower Seeds' has been exhibited all over the world, including Spain, Sweden, China, U.S.A, UK, Germany and a few other countries. The first impression of many audiences is are the seeds real, and the questioning of how and why so many seeds lie across a huge gallery floor, some even "picking them up and wanting to put them in their mouth to try". Ai seeks for audience participation, stating that "I want people who don't understand art to understand what I'm doing", connecting to the individual views and interpretations that the audience can experience through Ai's connection to China's past and impacts of tradition (no matter what country you are from). This therefore makes a direct link to the communication of Ai's meanings of the world through materials, techniques and visual codes in strategic ways - audience participation. 'Alcatraz @Large' - 'With Wind' is exhibited in and is designed to only exhibit in Alcatraz, evidently a strategy and considered thought for Ai to communicate his meanings in his work. This work however holds power and meaning through the location, as the grim, concrete walls that hide the stories of Americas worst prisoners showcases an exhibition which has colour, symbolic objects of freedom ("what freedom meant to an individual" ), and materials that juxtapose with the prisons' make up. Audiences are led to question their state of freedom, particularly when viewing 'With Wind' - a section of the exhibition of colourful dragon kites hanging from the ceiling with quotes from activists who have been exiled. This links back to the concept of Ai communicating his meaning of the ever changing world as a result of cultural and political events to his audience, through specific symbolism by quotes by famous people in exile and the dragon, also to represent personal freedom where Ai states even in this world "everybody still has the power". The deterioration of Chinese culture and westernisation of society inevitably frustrates Ai, which brings him back to persuading the audience and encouraging them to participate in the dramatic changes happening in China today, again another connection with audience participation and therefore the communication of meanings of the contemporary world. He also states that audience participation is very important, that he "lets the audience walk in and experience the condition".

Critical opinions and interpretations offer different meanings or parts that we as audiences don't connect with at first glance. In '@Large Alcatraz' - 'With Wind', Jason Farago (a NY writer and critic) interprets the eyes of the dragon bearing the shape of the logo of Twitter, which is native to San Francisco but banned in the People's Republic of China. This concretes part of how Ai communicates meanings to his audience in strategic and symbolic ways. American art critic Roberta Smith describes Ai's 'Sunflower Seeds' to hold a empowering meaning behind the delicacy of each individual seed. She states that "None of this can really be experienced at a remove. All that remains the vast greyness, stretching into the distance like a congealed sea, and of course the idea: the quantity, the labour, the care.".

Ai WeiWei's 'Sunflower Seeds' was first exhibited in the Tate Museum, London. Over 100 million porcelain seeds are created and on show, with 8 million in reserve for those who steal them. Porcelain holds a significant to the traditional culture of China, as for generations communities gather together to refine the shape of a bowl of glass with porcelain, and hence why Ai used this idea and gathered communities together to make each individual seed. Mao was often depicted in propaganda posters as the sun and his followers were the sunflowers, looking up to him like a God. By the destruction caused from 1966-76 with millions persecuted, families split up, homes and jobs destroyed and education systems shut down, Ai frequently wanted to pose questions to audience about this dark time and allow them to connect with the work. Therefore the use of simple objects in fact are spiritually and materially heavy symbols, where too the juxtaposed notion of the sunflower seeds being shared in hard times of the cultural revolution have a significant meaning. The second work that Ai uses to communicate his meanings of his contemporary world which is influenced by cultural and political events is 'With Wind' at '@Large Alcatraz'. Kites and the Chinese dragon kite embodies a mythical symbol of power, where each individual kite that make up the body carries quotations from activists who have been imprisoned or exiled, including Nelson Mandela, Edward Snowden and Ai himself. The "designs come from hallucination which has the most political prisoners quotes who lost their freedom because of their fighting for freedom of speech" .There is the strong juxtaposition of brightly coloured kites flying freely in the area with the industrial, concreted island which carries dark and heavy memories of Americas worst prisoners - the ideal of restriction vs freedom, a way of life that has also been derived in China as a result of the many political and cultural events.

Gonkar Gyatso, He Xiangyu and Ai WeiWei all communicate their meanings of a contemporary world and the differences that this has to the traditions of their culture in different yet very similar ways. All three artists use particular materials as their main conceptual focal point and explore the traditional conventions of their culture through creating a material which symbolises their meaning of the world. All three artists also have an indirect reference to the impacts of the Cultural Revolution and the profound impact it has had on the traditions of a country, whether it be from generations ago, or a personal interpretation of the impact it has had on the contemporary world. Gyatso and Ai have very obvious connections with the technological revolution and the idea of consumerism as it is evident in the titles, especially Gyatso, whereas He uses materials that are less obvious to express these ideas. On the other hand, He expresses the idea of consumerism by using an object which has direct reference to the idea of consumerism, and takes it into a different form, almost infiltrating his whole conceptual idea through the material.

Each artist seeks to represent their contemporary world which has been inevitably shifted and altered from tradition as a result of major political and cultural events (especially the Cultural Revolution). Ai WeiWei, Gonkar Gyatso and he Xiangyu communicate their meanings of their world through very similar conceptual ideas yet different material practices. Each artist uses visual codes and symbols to represent these ideas in strategic and considered ways, i.e. the location of exhibition, the formation of material to something aesthetically completely different, or the self portraiture to represent time shifts.

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Case Study #3 - Looking backwards to move forwards - bec's art blog

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How do artists communicate meanings to audiences using materials, techniques and visual codes in strategic and considered ways? Refer to a range of artists and artworks in your response. In a contemporary world which is influenced by so many diverse cultures and political events, artists seek to communicate meanings and interpretations of their world using various materials, techniques and visual codes in strategic and considered ways.

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*April 2016. **In the first 3 months, based on number of exhibition attendees.

The Partnership

AVM were commissioned by The Space to increase the reach of this landmark exhibition beyond the walls of the Royal Academy of Arts and its traditional demographic.

The physical exhibition was put together across 10 months with teams on 3 continents, and it was held in the RA Main Galleries, London from 19th September to 13th December 2015.

The online exhibition consisted of 12 rooms, 48 videos, 12 unique soundtracks, 1100 words, 49 installations and 5 key contributors. It launched on January 14th 2016 and remains open to the public both in the artist's studio in Beijing and on the RA's website.

Critical Acclaim

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April 2016. **In the first 3 months, based on number of exhibition attendees. AVM were commissioned by The Space to increase the reach of this landmark exhibition beyond the walls of the Royal Academy of Arts and its traditional demographic.

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Ai Weiwei Answers Your Questions | TateShots

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Ai Weiwei's exhibition highlights the global refugee crisis

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Ai Weiwei: Sunflower Seeds at Tate Modern, London

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News about Ai Weiwei. Commentary and archival information about Ai Weiwei from The New York Times.

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Ai Weiwei says Chinese authorities have destroyed his Beijing studio

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The frequent government critic posted videos to Instagram showing demolition he says began on Friday without prior notice.

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Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei to give Biennale of Sydney keynote address

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Ai Weiwei is a certified art superstar - but unlike most of his cashed-up peers in the contemporary art world he is also an activist, dissident and political exile.

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Chinese authorities are razing a Beijing studio of dissident artist Ai Weiwei, as his team race to remove years' worth of his sculptures.

"Farewell," Ai wrote on Instagram, below footage of an excavator clawing at a hole in the concrete wall, as workers boxed artwork in the cavernous hall.

"They started to demolish my studio 'Zuoyou' in Beijing with no precaution," he wrote in English.

He posted a series of other images of the studio, a former car parts factory in Beijing's outer suburbs.

Some images showed it being dismantled, others showed it filled with monumental works from exhibitions held in calmer days.

Ai helped to design the much-admired "Bird's Nest" stadium that was at the heart of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and was used as its symbol.

Today,they started to demolish my studio "zuo you"in Beijing with no precaution .which I have as my main studio since 2006.it is a East German style socialist factory building.farewell.

A post shared by Ai Weiwei (@aiww) on

However, even before the Games opened he had become increasingly critical of the authorities, particularly after a devastating earthquake in eastern Sichuan province just ahead of the Olympics.

Thousands of children were buried under schools that collapsed, and Ai became an advocate for the dead and their families, compiling names of students entombed in their schools, and later creating works to honour them.

In 2011, he was detained by the Chinese government for 81 days and after his release was accused of company tax evasion,charges that he said were politically motivated.

He paid a $2.4m (£1.5m) fine partly with donations from supporters, but his passport was confiscated for several years, preventing him from travelling. It was only returned in 2015, and since then, he has lived in self-imposed exile in Berlin.

Works created at my Zuoyou studio in Beijing. Bang, 2010-2013

A post shared by Ai Weiwei (@aiww) on

Ai had been expecting to leave the studio soon, his assistant Ga Rang told AFP, because the rental contract on the space had expired last autumn.

However, Ga said, it had not been possible to remove all the artwork stored in the space because there was so much of it, and the sudden destruction put some of it at risk. "They came and started knocking down the windows today without telling us beforehand. There's still so much stuff inside."

It was not clear if the destruction was targeting Ai directly. Chinese authorities have been clearing swathes of suburban Beijing over the last year, and residents near the studio said the former factory area was slated for redevelopment, AFP reported.

* This article was amended on 9 August 2018 to clarify references to the studio and the 2011 detention, and to add links to relevant reporting of past events.

Topics

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Ai Weiwei's Beijing studio razed by Chinese authorities

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Chinese authorities are razing a Beijing studio of dissident artist Ai Weiwei, as his team race to remove years' worth of his sculptures. "Farewell," Ai wrote on Instagram, below footage of an excavator clawing at a hole in the concrete wall, as workers boxed artwork in the cavernous hall.

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Ai Weiwei Introduces Turn It On: China on Film

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Artist Ai Weiwei describes working with filmmaker Wang Fen to select twenty documentary films that reflect the daily reality in China.

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Ai Weiwei and the Biennale of Sydney's artistic director, Mami Kataoka, at Cockatoo Island in Sydney, speak about the Chinese artist's exhibition inspired by the global refugee crisis. 'We are living in a very peaceful world, almost like a fairytale, in Australia, but still we cannot disconnect our connections to other human beings, the suffering and the tragic life of our global human community, he says. The activist has spent the last few years working on art that draws attention to the global refugee crisis, including a 60-metre long lifeboat featuring more than 300 refugee figures, called Law of the Journey, that is displayed on Cockatoo Island, and film Human Flow which also opens in Sydney this week.

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Ai Weiwei in Sydney: 'The refugee condition is a human condition' - video

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Ai Weiwei and the Biennale of Sydney's artistic director, Mami Kataoka, at Cockatoo Island in Sydney, speak about the Chinese artist's exhibition inspired by the global refugee crisis. 'We are living in a very peaceful world, almost like a fairytale, in Australia, but still we cannot disconnect our connections to other human beings, the suffering and the tragic life of our global human community, he says.

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A project by Ai Weiwei and Olafur Eliasson
http://www.moonmoonmoonmoon.com
BEIJING, June 22, 2013 - The Ai Weiwei Studio released Ai Weiwei's first music album, "The Divine Comedy", today to commemorate the second anniversary of his release from an 81-day secret detention.

The single "Dumbass", premiered last month along with its music video, is included in the album. "The Divine Comedy" features six tracks with vocals and lyrics by Ai Weiwei, and music by Zuoxiao Zuzhou. Each song is a different take of Ai's newfound channel for expression through music. The album includes commentaries on current events (Just Climb the Wall, Hotel USA), documentations of real dialogues (Chaoyang Park, Laoma Tihua), and personal reflections (Give Tomorrow Back to Me, Dumbass). The full album crosses musical genres with influences from pop, rock, punk and heavy metal, and takes us on a journey through Ai's experience with the conditions of China. Continue reading

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BEIJING, May 22, 2013 - The Ai Weiwei Studio released Ai Weiwei's new heavy metal single, "Dumbass", the first piece of Ai Weiwei's forthcoming music album "The Divine Comedy".

On the choice of music as his latest creative endeavor, Ai explains, "During my detention, the conditions were very restrictive, but the guards would often secretly ask me to sing for them. Being in that environment makes me realize that for these people, the only available release or means to kill time, is music. I felt deeply sorry that I couldn't do it, either I was not in the mood or I didn't think I can sing. The only songs I knew were the revolutionary ones. It is the same for many Chinese people; we had to memorize every red song. Creating music is a way to break through that situation." Continue reading

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged press on by .

#aiflowers is a project by Ai Weiwei inviting everyone to create a flower in memory of the child victims of the devastating Sichuan earthquake on May 12, 2008.

FakeCase.com is the definitive source for information on the Chinese authorities' "tax case" against Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist who was secretly detained for 81 days from April 3 to June 22, 2011. The charges of tax evasion, online dissemination of pornography, and bigamy that were levied against Ai are widely perceived as political retaliation for his outspoken criticism of the government.

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A project by Ai Weiwei and Olafur Eliasson http://www.moonmoonmoonmoon.com BEIJING, June 22, 2013 - The Ai Weiwei Studio released Ai Weiwei's first music album, "The Divine Comedy", today to commemorate the second anniversary of his release from an 81-day secret detention. The single "Dumbass", premiered last month along with its music video, is included in the album.

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Ai Weiwei detained. Here is his TED film

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The Case for Ai Weiwei | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios