Download or read book Ai Weiwei Speaks written by Hans Ulrich Obrist and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2011-05-26 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'If artists betray the social conscience and the basic principles of being human, where does art stand then?' Ai Weiwei - artist, architect, curator, publisher, poet and urbanist - extended the notion of art and is one of the world's most significant creative and cultural figures. In this series of interviews, conducted over several years with the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, he discusses the many dimensions of his artistic life, ranging over subjects including ceramics, blogging, nature, philosophy and the myriad influences that have fed into his work. He also talks candidly about his father, his childhood spent in exile and his criticism of the Chinese state. Together, these extraordinary discussions give a unique insight into the outstanding complexity of Ai Weiwei's thought and work, and are an essential reminder of the need for personal, political and artistic freedom.
Download or read book Humanity written by Ai Weiwei and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-04-24 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writings on human life and the refugee crisis by the most important political artist of our time Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) is widely known as an artist across media: sculpture, installation, photography, performance, and architecture. He is also one of the world's most important artist-activists and a powerful documentary filmmaker. His work and art call attention to attacks on democracy and free speech, abuses of human rights, and human displacement--often on an epic, international scale. This collection of quotations demonstrates the range of Ai Weiwei's thinking on humanity and mass migration, issues that have occupied him for decades. Selected from articles, interviews, and conversations, Ai Weiwei's words speak to the profound urgency of the global refugee crisis, the resilience and vulnerability of the human condition, and the role of art in providing a voice for the voiceless. Select quotations from the book: "This problem has such a long history, a human history. We are all refugees somehow, somewhere, and at some moment." "Allowing borders to determine your thinking is incompatible with the modern era." "Art is about aesthetics, about morals, about our beliefs in humanity. Without that there is simply no art." "I don't care what all people think. My work belongs to the people who have no voice."
Download or read book Weiwei isms written by Ai Weiwei and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2012-12-01 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The quotable Ai Weiwei This collection of quotes demonstrates the elegant simplicity of Ai Weiwei's thoughts on key aspects of his art, politics, and life. A master at communicating powerful ideas in astonishingly few words, Ai Weiwei is known for his innovative use of social media to disseminate his views. The short quotations presented here have been carefully selected from articles, tweets, and interviews given by this acclaimed Chinese artist and activist. The book is organized into six categories: freedom of expression; art and activism; government, power, and moral choices; the digital world; history, the historical moment, and the future; and personal reflections. Together, these quotes span some of the most revealing moments of Ai Weiwei's eventful career—from his risky investigation into student deaths in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to his arbitrary arrest in 2011—providing a window into the mind of one of the world's most electrifying and courageous contemporary artists. Select Quotes from the Book: On Freedom of Expression "Say what you need to say plainly, and then take responsibility for it." "A small act is worth a million thoughts." "Liberty is about our rights to question everything." On Art and Activism "Everything is art. Everything is politics." "The art always wins. Anything can happen to me, but the art will stay." "Life is art. Art is life. I never separate it. I don't feel that much anger. I equally have a lot of joy." On Government, Power, and Making Moral Choice "Once you've tasted freedom, it stays in your heart and no one can take it. Then, you can be more powerful than a whole country." "I feel powerless all the time, but I regain my energy by making a very small difference that won't cost me much." "Tips on surviving the regime: Respect yourself and speak for others. Do one small thing every day to prove the existence of justice." On the Digital World "Only with the Internet can a peasant I have never met hear my voice and I can learn what's on his mind. A fairy tale has come true." "The Internet is uncontrollable. And if the Internet is uncontrollable, freedom will win. It's as simple as that." "The Internet is the best thing that could have happened to China." On History, the Historical Moment, and the Future "If a nation cannot face its past, it has no future." "We need to get out of the old language." "The world is a sphere, there is no East or West." Personal Reflection "I've never planned any part of my career—except being an artist. And I was pushed into that corner because I thought being an artist was the only way to have a little freedom." "Anyone fighting for freedom does not want to totally lose their freedom." "Expressing oneself is like a drug. I'm so addicted to it."
Download or read book 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows written by Ai Weiwei and published by Crown. This book was released on 2022-09-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “intimate and expansive” (Time) memoir of “one of the most important artists working in the world today” (Financial Times), telling a remarkable history of China over the last hundred years while also illuminating his artistic process “Poignant . . . An illuminating through-line emerges in the many parallels Ai traces between his life and his father’s.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, BookPage, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews Once a close associate of Mao Zedong and the nation’s most celebrated poet, Ai Weiwei’s father, Ai Qing, was branded a rightist during the Cultural Revolution, and he and his family were banished to a desolate place known as “Little Siberia,” where Ai Qing was sentenced to hard labor cleaning public toilets. Ai Weiwei recounts his childhood in exile, and his difficult decision to leave his family to study art in America, where he befriended Allen Ginsberg and was inspired by Andy Warhol and the artworks of Marcel Duchamp. With candor and wit, he details his return to China and his rise from artistic unknown to art world superstar and international human rights activist—and how his work has been shaped by living under a totalitarian regime. Ai Weiwei’s sculptures and installations have been viewed by millions around the globe, and his architectural achievements include helping to design the iconic Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing. His political activism has long made him a target of the Chinese authorities, which culminated in months of secret detention without charge in 2011. Here, for the first time, Ai Weiwei explores the origins of his exceptional creativity and passionate political beliefs through his life story and that of his father, whose creativity was stifled. At once ambitious and intimate, Ai Weiwei’s 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows offers a deep understanding of the myriad forces that have shaped modern China, and serves as a timely reminder of the urgent need to protect freedom of expression.
Download or read book Conversations written by Ai Weiwei and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ai Weiwei is one of the world's most acclaimed artists and dissidents. This book presents him in conversation with theorists, critics, journalists, and curators about key moments in his life and career. These wide-ranging conversations flow between topics such as his relationship with China, the meaning of citizenship, moving his studio to Lesbos to be on the front lines of the migrant crisis, how to make art, and technology as a tool for freedom or oppression. Ai opens up about his relationship to his father as a poet and as a dissident forced into hard labor in a small village after the Cultural Revolution. He conjures up scenes from his long relationship with New York: dropping out of Parsons because he couldn't afford tuition, making portraits in Washington Square Park as an undocumented immigrant in the 1980s, taking photos for the New York Times at demonstrations in Tompkins Square Park, and returning to set up the Good Fences Make Good Neighbors project across the city. These candid, spontaneous conversations reveal why Ai Weiwei has become such a major force in contemporary art and political life.
Download or read book Hanging Man written by Barnaby Martin and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2013-09-17 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The gripping story of post-Mao China and the harrowing fate of the artist and activist Ai Weiwei In October 2010, Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds appeared in the Turbine Hall in the Tate Modern. In April 2011, he was arrested and held for more than two months in terrible conditions. The most famous living Chinese artist and activist, Weiwei is a figure of extraordinary talent, courage, and integrity. From the beginning of his career, he has spoken out against the world's most powerful totalitarian regime, in part by creating some of the most beautiful and mysterious artworks of our age, works which have touched millions around the world. Just after Ai Weiwei's release from illegal detention, Barnaby Martin flew to Beijing to interview him about his imprisonment and to learn more about what is really going on behind the scenes in the upper echelons of the Chinese Communist Party. Based on these interviews and Martin's own intimate connections with China, Hanging Man is an exploration of Weiwei's life, art, and activism and also a meditation on the creative process, and on the history of art in modern China. It is a rich picture of the man and his milieu, of what he is trying to communicate with his art, and of the growing campaign for democracy and accountability in China. It is a book about courage and hope found in the absence of freedom and justice.
Download or read book Andy Warhol Ai Weiwei written by John J. Curley and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This stunning publication is the first to examine in tandem the work and influence of two towering figures in contemporary art Andy Warhol (1928-1987) and Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) are two of the most internationally renowned artists of the past 100 years, famous not only for their artwork but also for influencing the culture of their time. This exciting book is the first to consider the work of these artists alongside one another, in dialogue and in correspondence, to explore the artists' meticulous observations of modern and contemporary art, life, and politics. Andy Warhol's investigation of consumer society, fame, and celebrity offers thought-provoking points of connection with Ai Weiwei's interrogation of the relationship between tradition and modernity, the role of the individual to the state, questions of human rights, and the value of freedom of expression. Parallels also exist between the ways in which each artist transformed the understanding of artistic value and studio production, and redefined the role of the artist--as impresario, cultural producer, activist, and brand. Alongside beautifully reproduced images by both artists--including works by Ai Weiwei published here for the first time--are illuminating essays by an international team of art experts, curators, and scholars that survey the scope of the artists' careers and interpret the significant impact of Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei on modern art and contemporary life. This deluxe, collectible catalogue is available in three different, limited-edition colors. Published in collaboration with the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh Exhibition Schedule: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (12/11/15-04/24/16) The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh (06/01/16-09/01/16)
Download or read book Ai Weiwei Sunflower Seeds written by Juliet Bingham and published by Tate Enterprises Ltd. This book was released on 2013-09-05 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born in Beijing in 1957, Ai Weiwei is one of the most influential artists at work today and has exhibited widely in Asia, Europe and North America. He is the first artist living and working in the Asia-Pacific region to be commissioned as part of The Unilever Series to create an artwork for the vast Turbine Hall at Tate Modern. Ai Weiwei has said liberty is about the right to question everything. His works in a wide range of media are characterized by social and political engagement and a constantly enquiring mind. Whether as an artist, curator, critic, designer or architect, he has played a key part in contemporary Chinese art and culture of the past two decades, not least through his collaboration with architects Herzog & de Meuron in designing the 'Bird's Nest' stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.This book provides important insights into the creative processes of this exciting and dynamic contemporary artist. The ebook includes two specially made films.
Download or read book It Speaks to Me written by Jori Finkel and published by Prestel Publishing. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bernard Piffaretti on Pierrot, formerly known as Gilles by Jean-Antoine Watteau -- Ana Prvacki on Grotto of Sarrazine near Nans-sous-Sainte-Anne by Gustave Courbet -- Pipilotti Rist on Shiva Nataraja from Tamil Nadu -- Julião Sarmento on Portrait of a young woman by Domenico Ghirlandaio -- Mithu Sen on a red sandstone torso from Harappa -- Stephen Shore on the Studiolo from the Ducal Palace in Gubbio -- Shinique Smith on Canyon by Robert Rauschenberg -- Kishio Suga on Tokyo stone line by Richard Long -- Do Ho Suh on Kumgang Mountain by Jeong Seon -- Diana Thater on Video flag Z by Nam June Paik -- Rikrit Tiravanija on Venus of Bangkok by Montien Boonma -- Luc Tuymans on The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele by Jan Van Eyck -- Bill Viola on The Annunciation by Dieric Bouts -- Edmund de Waal on The interior of the Grote Kerk at Haarlem by Pieter Saenredam -- Gillian Wearing on Self-portrait at the age of 63 by Rembrandt --.
Download or read book Ai Weiwei Speaks written by Hans Ulrich Obrist and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2016-09-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new edition of conversations between the artist Ai Wei Wei and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, coming up to the present day Ai Weiwei - artist, architect, curator, publisher, poet and urbanist - extended the notion of art and is one of the world's most significant creative and cultural figures. In this series of interviews, conducted over several years with the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, he discusses the many dimensions of his artistic life, ranging over subjects including ceramics, blogging, nature, philosophy and the myriad influences that have fed into his work. He also talks candidly about his father, his childhood spent in exile and his criticism of the Chinese state. Together, these extraordinary discussions are an essential reminder of the need for personal, political and artistic freedom.
Download or read book Human Flow written by Ai Weiwei and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-12 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A powerful portrait of the greatest humanitarian emergency of our time, from the director of Human Flow In the course of making Human Flow, his epic feature documentary about the global refugee crisis, the artist Ai Weiwei and his collaborators interviewed more than 600 refugees and aid workers in twenty-three countries around the world. A handful of those interviews were included in the film. This book presents one hundred of these conversations in their entirety, providing compelling first-person stories of the lives of refugees. Speaking in their own words, refugees give voice to their experiences of migrating across borders, living in refugee camps for months or years, and struggling to rebuild their lives in unfamiliar and uncertain surroundings. They talk about the dire circumstances that drove them to migrate, whether war, famine, or persecution; the hardships they face; and their hopes and fears for the future. In the words of Atiq, an Afghan in his early twenties staying at a refugee camp in Greece, "Nobody in the world wants to leave his country. But there's no way for people to live in that place." Complete with photographs taken by Ai Weiwei while filming Human Flow, this book provides a powerful and moving account of the most urgent humanitarian crisis of our time.
Download or read book Mirror Mirrored written by Corwin Levi and published by Uzzlepye Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grimms’ fairy tales, originally collected in 1812, are a timeless chronicle of the possibilities our lives all have, and the full range of human nature. The stories remain just as relevant today as when they were first published over 200 years ago. To introduce these tales to a new generation, Uzzlepye Press presents Mirror Mirrored: An Artists' Edition of 25 Grimms' Tales, a special visual edition of 25 of the stories. It includes not only almost 2,000 vintage Grimms' illustrations remixed into the book alongside the story texts, but also work from 28 contemporary artists visually reimagining these stories.
Download or read book The Political Space of Art written by Benoît Dillet and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-05-18 with total page 139 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book studies the tension between arts and politics in four contemporary artists from different countries, working with different media. The film directors Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne film parts of their natal city to refer to specific political problems in interpersonal relations. The novelist Arundhati Roy uses her poetic language to make room for people’s desires; her fiction is utterly political and her political essays make place for the role of narratives and poetic language. Ai Weiwei uses references to Chinese history to give consistency to its ‘economic miracle’. Finally, Burial’s electronic music is firmly rooted in a living, breathing London; built to create a sound that is entirely new, and yet hauntingly familiar. These artists create in their own way a space for politics in their works and their oeuvre but their singularity comes together as a desire to reconstruct the political space within art from its ruins. These ruins were brought by the disenchantment of 1970s: the end of art, postmodernism, and the rise of design, marketing and communication. Each artwork bears the mark of the resistance against the depoliticisation of society and the arts, at once rejecting cynicism and idealism, referring to themes and political concepts that are larger than their own domain. This book focuses on these productive tensions.
Download or read book Selected Poems written by Ai Qing and published by Crown. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A timeless, visionary collection of poems from one of China’s most acclaimed poets—now available in English for the first time in a generation and featuring a foreword by his son, contemporary artist and activist Ai Weiwei One of the most influential poets in Chinese history, Ai Qing is mostly unknown to American readers, but his work has shaped the nature of poetry in China for decades. Born between the fall of imperial Manchurian rule and the establishment of the Communist People’s Republic, Ai Qing was at one time an intimate of Mao Zedong. He would eventually fall out with the leader and be sentenced to hard labor during the Cultural Revolution, when he was exiled to the remote part of the country known as “Little Siberia” with his family, including his son, Ai Weiwei. In his work, Ai Qing tells the story of a China convulsing with change, leaving behind a legacy of feudalism and imperialism but uncertain about what the future will hold. Breaking with traditional forms of Chinese poetry, Ai Qing innovatively adapted free verse, writing with a simple sincerity in clear lines that could be understood by everyday readers. Selected Poems is an extraordinary collection that traces the powerful inner life of this influential poet who crafted poems of protest, who longed for a newer, happier age, and who wrote with a profound lyricism that reaches deep into the heart of the reader.
Download or read book A Forest of Names written by Ian Boyden and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poems illuminate a hidden landscape in the names of children killed in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake How do we honor the dead? How do we commit them to memory? And how do we come to terms with the way they died? To start, we can name them. When schools collapsed in an earthquake in China, burying over 5,000 children, the government brutally prevented parents from learning who had died. Artist Ai Weiwei, at risk to his own safety, gathered the names of these children, and their names are the subject of this book. Each poem is a poetic meditation on the image and concept suggested by the etymology in the Chinese characters. This act of poetic translation is both a heartbreaking tribute to people whose names have been erased, and a healing meditation on how language suggests a path forward. July 30 Tiānwēi Celestial Awe He carried no iron into battle. When he lifted his hand, he brandished the sky.
Download or read book At Large written by David Spalding and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Working from his studio in China, internationally acclaimed artist and activist Ai Weiwei has created a major series of site-specific installations for Alcatraz Island. In this essential catalog, beautiful photographs of the large-scale artworks provide an comprehensive look at this important project, while thought-provoking texts and archival vintage images proffer cultural and historical context"--
Download or read book Hans Ulrich Obrist written by Hans Ulrich Obrist and published by Charta. This book was released on 2003 with total page 976 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Transcripts of interviews by Hans Ulrich Obrist with architects, artists, curators, film-makers, musicians, philosophers, social theorists and urbanists.
