Ai Weiwei is Chinese contemporary artist and activist. He've been working on variety of mediums and as a political activist, he has been highly and openly critical of the Chinese Government. Among his works, Study in Perspective photo series really stood out for me because his simple gesture in the series shows serious rebellion against world's supreme authorities. After I saw this image at Art museum in Washington D.C. I also wanted to take similar picture but I couldn't take it because I was aware of people around me. From this I learned it takes more than just flipping middle finger in public space to make this project. Especially, if you get caught doing this in China, you probably end up in jail at the least.
His art was so provoking that there are at least 15 surveillance camera monitoring his house in Beijing. But he described his decision to put himself under further surveillance as a symbolic way to increase transparency in the Chinese Government.
http://aiweiwei.com/index.html
This is the link to his website he also have documentary videos about similar topic so if you're interested, checkout this website
It's really interesting in the sense that the entire process of taking the photos and flipping off the government because an artistic performance in it's own way
ReplyDeleteI studied Ai Wei Wei in high school when an exhibit of his came to the Indianapolis Museum of Art (where I work when I'm home). I love his work and think it's so interesting/thought provoking.
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