Ai Weiwei

born 28 August 1957 in Beijing) is a Chinese Contemporary artist and activist.born 28 August 1957 in Beijing) is a Chinese Contemporary artist and activist.As a political activist, he has been highly and openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He has investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandalfollowing the collapse of so-called "tofu-dreg schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2011, following his arrest at Beijing Capital International Airport on 3 April, he was held for 81 days without any official charges being filed; officials alluded to their allegations of "economic crimes".

Ai's visual art includes sculptural installations, woodworking, video and photography. "Ai Weiwei: According to What," adapted and expanded by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden from a 2009 exhibition at Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, was Ai's first North American museum retrospective. It opened at the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C. in 2013, and subsequently traveled to the Brooklyn Museum, New York,and two other venues.More recent works address his investigation into the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake and responses to the Chinese government's detention and surveillance of him

Sunflower SeedsArtist: Ai WeiweiCreated: 2010Period: Conceptual artGenre: Site-specific artAi Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of small works, each apparently identical, but actually unique. However realistic they may seem, these life-sized sunflower seed husks are in fact intricately hand-crafted in porcelain. Each seed has been individually sculpted and painted by specialists working in small-scale workshops in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen. Far from being industrially produced, they are the effort of hundreds of skilled hands. Poured into the interior of the Turbine Hall’s vast industrial space, the 100 million seeds form a seemingly infinite landscape.Porcelain is almost synonymous with China and, to make this work, Ai Weiwei has manipulated traditional methods of crafting what has historically been one of China’s most prized exports. Sunflower Seeds invites us to look more closely at the ‘Made in China’ phenomenon and the geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today.

Cube LightArtworkArtist: AiWeiweiCreated: 2008Period: Conceptual artGenre: Site-specific art

Map of ChinaSculptureMap of China is a 2008 sculpture by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. The sculpture has been reported as resembling a park bench or tree trunk, but its cross-section is a map of China.It is four metres long and weighs 635 kilograms.WikipediaArtist: Ai WeiweiCreated: 2008Period: Conceptual artGenre: Site-specific artAi Weiwei (Chinese, b. 1957). Map of China, 2008. Tieli wood (iron wood) from dismantled temples of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), 161 x 215 170 cm. Collection of the Faurschou Foundation. © Ai Weiwei.

Table with Two Legs on the WallArtworkArtist: Ai WeiweiCreated: 2008Period: Conceptual artGenre: Site-specific art

Coca-Cola vaseArtworkArtist: Ai Weiwei Coca-Cola Vase, 2007. Vase from Neolithic Age (5000-3000 B.C.E.) and paint, 40 x 40 cm. Collection of Larry Warsh.

Circle of Animals/Zodiac HeadsCircle of Animals/Zodiac Heads is an artwork by Chinese contemporary artist and political commentator, Ai Weiwei. The work comes in a small and large version. WikipediaArtist: Ai WeiweiCreated: 2011Subject: Chinese zodiacMedia: Bronze

Colored VasesArtworkArtist: Ai WeiweiCreated: 2006Period: Conceptual artGenre: Site-specific art

Bowl of PearlsArtworkArtist: Ai WeiweiCreated: 2006Period: Conceptual artGenre: Site-specific art

Ai Weiwei (Chinese, b. 1957). Straight, 2008-12. Steel reinforcing bar, dimensions variable. Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio. Installation at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., 2012. Photo by Cathy Carver.

Snake CeilingArtworkArtist: Ai WeiweiCreated: 2009Period: Conceptual artGenre: Site-specific art

Ai Weiwei (Chinese, b. 1957). He Xie, 2010. 3200 porcelain crabs, dimensions variable. Installation at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., 2012. Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio. Photo by Cathy Carver.

Ai Weiwei (Chinese, b. 1957). Stacked (detail), 2012. 760 Forever Bicycles, dimensions variable. Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio. © Ai Weiwei.

Ai Weiwei, Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995, Triptych, b/w-prints, © FAKE Studio.

Ai Weiwei, Forever, Bicycles, 2003, 42 bicycles, h. 275cm x 450cm, © FAKE Studio.

Beijing video worksFrom 2003 to 2005, Ai Weiwei recorded the results of Beijing’s developing urban infrastructure and its social conditions.Beijing 2003 2003, Video, 150 hoursBeginning under the Dabeiyao highway interchange, the vehicle from which Beijing 2003 was shot traveled every road within the Fourth Ring Road of Beijing and documented the road conditions. Approximately 2400 kilometers and 150 hours of footage later, it ended where it began under the Dabeiyao highway interchange. The documentation of these winding alleyways of the city center – now largely torn down for redevelopment – preserved a visual record of the city that is free of aesthetic judgment.Chang’an Boulevard2004, Video, 10h 13mMoving from east to west, Chang’an Boulevard traverses Beijing’s most iconic avenue. Along the boulevard’s 45-kilometer length, it recorded the changing densities of its far-flung suburbs, central business districts, and political core. At each 50-meter increment, the artist records a single frame for one minute. The work reveals the rhythm of Beijing as a capital city, its social structure, cityscape, socialist-planned economy, capitalist market, political power center, commercial buildings, and industrial units as pieces of a multi-layered urban collage.Beijing: The Second Ring[edit]2005, Video, 1h 6mBeijing: The Third Ring2005 Video, 1h 50mBeijing: The Second Ring and Beijing: The Third Ring capture two opposite views of traffic flow on every bridge of each Ring Road, the innermost arterial highways of Beijing. The artist records a single frame for one minute for each view on the bridge. Beijing: The Second Ring was entirely shot on cloudy days, while the segments for Beijing: The Third Ring were entirely shot on sunny days. The films document the historic aspects and modern development of a city with a population of nearly 11 million people.

Director Klayman received a special jury prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for the film, which also opened the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto on 26 April 2012. The film received special prize during the opening ceremony at the Passion For Freedom Festival in 2012 in London. It was screened on the 9th of November 2012 as a part of the PFF festival

Ai Weiwei (Chinese, b. 1957). Cover of So Sorry, 2011. Documentary, 54 minutes. Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio. © Ai Weiwei.

Jinhua ParkIn 2002, he was the curator of the project Jinhua Architecture Park.Tsai ResidenceIn 2006, Ai and HHF Architects designed a private residence in upstate New York for collectors Christopher Tsai and André Stockamp. According to the New York Times, the Tsai Residence is divided into four modules and the details are "extraordinarily refined". In 2009, the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design selected the home for its International Architecture Awards, one of the world's most prestigious global awards for new architecture, landscape architecture, interiors and urban planning. In 2010, Wallpaper magazine nominated the residence for its Wallpaper Design Awards category: Best New Private House. A detached guesthouse, also designed by Ai and HHF Architects, was completed after the main house and, according to New York Magazine, looks like a "floating boomerang of rusty Cor-Ten steel."Ordos 100In 2008, Ai curated the architecture project Ordos 100 in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. He invited 100 architects from 29 countries to participate in this project.Beijing National StadiumAi was commissioned as the artistic consultant for design, collaborating with the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron, for the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics, also known as the "Bird's Nest."Although ignored by the Chinese media, he had voiced his anti-Olympics views. He later distanced himself from the project, saying, "I've already forgotten about it. I turn down all the demands to have photographs with it," saying it is part of a "pretend smile" of bad taste. In August 2007, he also accused those choreographing the Olympic opening ceremony, including Steven Spielberg and Zhang Yimou, of failing to live up to their responsibility as artists. Ai said "It's disgusting. I don't like anyone who shamelessly abuses their profession, who makes no moral judgment." In February 2008, Spielberg withdrew from his role as advisor to the 2008 Summer Olympics. When asked why he participated in the designing of the Bird's Nest in the first place, Ai replied "I did it because I love design."Serpentine PavilionIn summer 2012, Ai teamed again with Herzog & de Meuron on a "would-be archaeological site a game of make-believe and fleeting memory" as the year's temporary Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London's Kensington Gardens.

Ai Weiwei, Rooted upon, 2009, 100 pieces of tree trunks, 640 x 3500 x 1100 cm, © Ai Weiwei.

On 24 October 2012, Ai went live with a cover of Gangnam Style, the famous K-pop phenomenon by South Korean rapper PSY, through the posting of a four-minute long parody video on YouTube. The video was an attempt to criticize the Chinese government's attempt to silence his activism and was quickly blocked by national authorities.On 22 May 2013, Ai debuted his first single Dumbass over the internet, with a music video shot by cinematographer Christopher Doyle. The video was a reconstruction of Ai's experience in prison, during his 81-day detention, and dives in and out of the prison's reality and the guarding soldiers' fantasies.[140] He later released a second single, Laoma Tihua, on 20 June 2013 along with a video on his experience of state surveillance, with footage compiled from his studio's documentaries. On 22 June 2013, the two-year anniversary of Ai's release, he released his first music album The Divine Comedy.Later in August, he released a third music video for the songChaoyang Park, also included in the album.

Ai is the Artistic Director of China Art Archives & Warehouse (CAAW), which he co-founded in 1997. This contemporary art archive and experimental gallery in Beijing concentrates on experimental art from the People's Republic of China, initiates and facilitates exhibitions and other forms of introductions inside and outside China.The building which houses it was designed by Ai in 2000.On 15 March 2010, Ai took part in Digital Activism in China, a discussion hosted by The Paley Media Center in New York with Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter) and Richard MacManus. Also in 2010 he served as jury member for Future Generation Art Prize, Kiev, Ukraine; contributed design for Comme de Garcons Aoyama Store, Tokyo, Japan; and participated in a talk with Nobel Prize winner Herta Müller at the International Culture festival Litcologne in Cologne, Germany.In 2011, Ai sat on the jury of an international initiative to find a universal Logo for Human Rights. The winning design, combining the silhouette of a hand with that of a bird, was chosen from more than 15,300 suggestions from over 190 countries. The initiative's goal was to create an internationally recognized logo to support the global human rights movement.In 2013, after the existence of PRISM was revealed, Ai said "Even though we know governments do all kinds of things I was shocked by the information about the US surveillance operation, Prism. To me, it's abusively using government powers to interfere in individuals' privacy. This is an important moment for international society to reconsider and protect individual rights."Ai designed the cover for 17 June 2013 issue of Time magazine. The cover story, by Hannah Beech, is "How China Sees the World". TIME Magazine called it "the most beautiful cover we've ever done in our history."In 2011, Ai served as co-director and curator of the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale, and co-curator of the exhibition Shanshui at The Museum of Art Lucerne.Also in 2011, Ai spoke at TED (conference) and was a guest lecturer at Oslo School of Architecture and Design.In 2013, Ai became Reporters Without Borders ambassador. He also gave a hundred pictures to the NGO in order to release a Photo book and a digital album, both sold in order to fund freedom of information projects.In 2014–2015, Ai explored human rights and freedom of expression through an exhibition of his art exclusively created for Alcatraz, a notorious federal penitentiary from 27 September 2014 to 26 April 2015. Ai reveals new perspectives on this Alcatraz exhibition which contradicts and raises questions about human rights and the freedom of expression through his artwork at the island's layered legacy as a 19th-century military fortress.