Detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei remembered with new Tate Modern display. The Tate Modern has installed 10 tonnes of Ai Weiwei's hand-crafted porcelain sunflower seeds in one of its surrealism galleries as concern continues over the artist's disappearance 75 days ago.
The display, loaned from the artist, comprises just under a 10th of the seeds which covered much of the London gallery's Turbine Hall from October 2010 to May this year. Visitors will be able to walk around the seeds, which have been carefully sculpted into a five-metre wide conical form. The display on the third floor of Tate Modern renews the focus on Ai's disappearance and detention without charge by the Chinese authorities. The gallery's new director, Chris Dercon, said: "Tate remains deeply concerned about Ai Weiwei's detention. Recent events have made Sunflower Seeds an ever-more poignant commentary on the importance of the individual in society. Anish Kapoor rejects China show in support of Ai Weiwei. Censorship China British Council had asked the artist to consider a show in Tiananmen Square.
FREE Ai Weiwei – glasses !! DeCordova Joins Museum Community In Supporting Detained Artist. File photo, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei (AP) BOSTON — A large, red banner with the words “Free Ai Weiwei” now hangs outside the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln.
Free Ai Weiwei. By Jonathan Blaustein Photograph by Hugo Tillman America loves a good bad guy.
We’re never really at our best until our backs are against the wall. Just look at Rocky Balboa. He was fat, tired and lazy until Clubber Lang came along. Hong Kong artists revel in freedom to support Ai Weiwei. Ai Weiwei: the dissident artist. As I write, the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has been in detention for 51 days and 6 hours.
I know this so precisely because someone who goes by the handle "loveaiww" has placed a counter on the web. On the door of my flat is a poster with a silhouette of Ai, made from a photograph taken during a period when he was interested in getting (and giving) weird haircuts. His round head is surmounted by two long tufts of hair, like horns. It looks wild, comic. "Weiwei works here" says the text. Have Our Cultural Stewards Abandoned One of Their Own? News Stream: Blog Archive - Is Hong Kong afraid of Ai Weiwei? « - CNN.com Blogs. A man in marble is giving me the finger.
I'm at Art HK, Asia's leading art fair, and the one-finger salute is from the 2007 sculpture "Marble Arm" by outspoken artist-activist Ai Weiwei. As we all should know by now, Ai was detained by Beijing authorities almost two months ago in an ongoing campaign against Chinese activists. Ai has since been accused of tax evasion. "Marble Arm" is linked to a series of provocative snapshots featuring Ai raising his middle finger to various symbols of power from the White House to Tiananmen Square.
On reserve, it has a prospective buyer who is willing to pay $280,000 for the work. And today, that marble middle finger is greeting prospective buyers and curious visitors at Art HK's Galerie Urs Meile exhibition space. But it is a lonely protest. Ai Weiwei Fallout for Hong Kong Art Fair? Ai Weiwei at Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany, in 2007 May 18, 2011 The detention of artist Ai Weiwei on unspecified charges by Chinese authorities has become a worldwide controversy, but is it having any effect on the thriving art market in China?
The answer would seem to be “no,” at least judging by Art HK, the Hong Kong International Art Fair, May 26-29, 2011, now in its fourth year, which has attracted 260 galleries from 38 countries, as well as sponsorship from Deutsche Bank. Artnet Magazine correspondent Charlie Finch called for an art-world boycott of the Chinese art market in a column posted on Apr. 18, 2011, and the sentiment seems to be growing. The London-based Art Newspaper raised the issue on May 13, 2011, noting that “despite criticism of the Chinese government over Ai Weiwei’s arrest, galleries are still happy to show in Hong Kong.”
The Art Newspaper cited a British blogger with the comely moniker Cathedral of Shitas proposing the boycott. Contact. Joshua Rosenzweig: Lawyer @liu_xiaoyuan repor... Free Ai Weiwei - Articles, interviews, videos regarding Ai Weiwei. US lambasts Chinese repression of dissidents as 'trying to stop history' - Asia, World. Amid ongoing talks in Washington designed to improve relations between the United States and China, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described Beijing's human-rights record as "deplorable" and said that history is against governments that resist democracy.
"They're worried and they are trying to stop history, which is a fool's errand. They cannot do it. But they're going to hold it off as long as possible," Ms Clinton said in an interview published yesterday. She raised the issue of human rights, though less stridently, at the start of talks that focused on foreign policy and economic matters. Both countries have tried to stress a generally positive track record in relations between the world's two largest economies. The talks come during an ongoing major security operation by China that has seen lawyers, writers and artists detained amid official concerns over unrest, inspired by violent protests in the Arab world, spreading to the world's most populous nation.
Ai Weiwei in 'good physical health but mentally conflicted' Detained artist Ai Weiwei seems to be in good physical health but mentally conflicted and tense, his wife has said after seeing him for the first time in six weeks.
Lu Qing said she was taken to see her husband for about 20 minutes on Sunday afternoon, the first contact friends and relatives have had with the 53-year-old Chinese artist and activist since officials stopped him at Beijing airport on 3 April. It is not clear where he is being held and the people who arranged the visit did not show her identification, she added. "I could see redness in his eyes.
It was obvious that without freedom to express himself he was not behaving naturally even with me, someone from his family," Lu told Associated Press. China unhappy with support for detained artist. China "unhappy" with support for detained artist. Free Ai Weiwei. Freeaiweiwei.org. China Detains Artist Ai Wei Wei, Designer of Olympic Bird's Nest Stadium. China’s crackdown on dissent continues: On Sunday, Chinese authorities reportedly detained the country’s best-known artist, Ai Wei Wei, the Guardian reports.
Ai, who designed the Olympic Bird’s Nest stadium, was approached by police at the immigration control at the Beijing Airport as he was to board a flight to Hong Kong for business. Police have searched his studio, confiscated computers and questioned his assistants. According to the BBC, “China’s authorities appear on edge over calls for a so-called Jasmine Revolution, partly inspired by pro-democracy movements in the Middle East.” Human rights activists say that the crackdown in China has been the harshest in decades with some 23 activists, lawyers, writers and others criminally detained in recent weeks on charges of incitement of subversion or creating a disturbance.
Three more have been arrested and more than a dozen, including “high profile human rights lawyers,” have been missing. Ai Weiwei, ou l'art de la contestation sociale - Chine. Dans le paysage chinois de 2009, l'homme est d'une essence inclassable. Ni dissident professionnel, ni chantre de la « Nouvelle Chine ». Ai Weiwei, l'artiste qui f...ck Pékin. Il était sous surveillance. NYC Announces Exhibition Of Works Of Ai Weiwei.
The city Parks Department put out an announcement this morning that Central Park's Arsenal Gallery will present the photo exhibit "Full Circle: Ai Weiwei and the Emperor’s Fountain" in collaboration with AW Asia between May 2 and July 15. Ai Weiwei's "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads," pictured here, is on view beginning May 2 at the Pulitzer Fountain in Grand Army Plaza at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street. The city's press release notes that "Most recently, he helped design the “Bird’s Nest” Olympic Stadium in Beijing, and created the art installation Sunflower Seeds, which featured one hundred million handmade porcelain sunflower seeds, on display at the Turbine Hall in London’s Tate Modern. " But more recently than that, artist/activist Ai Weiwei was taken into custody by Chinese authorities in Beijing -- and despite laws requiring them to do so, they haven't told his family what's happened to him.
"'It is a mystery. They haven't notified us of anything. Bianca Jagger: Free Ai Weiwei. Whilst world attention is focused on the political uprisings unfolding in the Middle East and Africa, the Chinese government has engaged in a widespread crackdown on political and social critics. Ai Weiwei, the world famous artist, and a courageous advocate of human rights, the rule of law and individual freedoms, was detained by the Chinese authorities on 3rd April 2011 as he tried to board a flight to Hong Kong. He has not been heard from since.
His wife, friends and staff were also detained and questioned over the weekend. His Beijing studio has been searched, and his computer hard-drives confiscated. Ai Weiwei is perhaps best known for his collaboration with architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron on the design for the Olympic Bird's Nest stadium. Douze sculptures d’Ai Weiwei à central Park. Nous sommes tous des Ai Weiwei. Free Ai Weiwei - Articles, interviews, videos regarding Ai Weiwei. At Unveiling of Ai Weiwei’s Work, Calls for His Release. Human Rights Petition: Call for the Release of Ai WeiWei. On April 3, internationally acclaimed Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was detained at the Beijing airport while en route to Hong Kong, and his papers and computers were seized from his studio compound. Ai’s whereabouts remain unknown and due process under Chinese law has been denied him. We members of the international arts community express our concern for Ai’s freedom and disappointment in China’s reluctance to live up to its promise to nurture creativity and independent thought, the keys to “soft power” and cultural influence.
Our institutions have some of the largest online museum communities in the world. We have launched this online petition to our collective millions of Facebook fans and Twitter followers. Ai Weiwei – FUCK OFF – Bookmarklet. Say it like Ai Weiwei!! Make some noise !! Free Ai Weiwei !! Drag and drop the link below ↓ to your bookmarks tool bar above ↑ (tutorial below).
Hit the FUCK OFF – Bookmarklet in desired situation while you surf the web!