I was initially very bored at the beginning of the film, probably because I'm extremely impatient but I gave it some time and I found that Ai Wei Wei is an artist that does not try to be unique, or special, or different but he just IS.
The Chinese government's alienation of Ai Wei Wei did not start with him but with his father, the poet Ai Qing, who was sent to a reeducation camp and sentenced hard labour along with his family. Ai Wei Wei represents the new China, a modern China where the people are no longer blind and dumb to the
government - through simple actions he says more than he ever could with words.
I was a little surprised that Ai Wei Wei had a team of "assassins"- people that did the physical labor of his artwork. He considers himself to be the brain, the decision maker, the conceptualist. In a society where handiwork and labor is so highly considered and emphasized, the fact that this artist doesn't actually make anything he thinks of- well it didn't make me NOT respect him, but I was less enthused about learning about him. It seemed mechanical, like his studio was a factory of art rather than a place where he immerses himself and really puts himself into his work.
But this is why he is so unlike other Chinese artists. An artist in the documentary had said that Ai Wei Wei was one that was not really familiar in the Chinese art circle because the others had studied at art schools and had been trained. But he focuses on the message that his work communicates.
"The influences are not visual as much as it is as conceptual" >> an accurate description of what Ai Wei Wei's work is like. He is a Chinese Felix Gonzalez Torres - in his work "Dropping a Han Dynasty Vase" he is simply dropping an object. But what we associate with the object - wealth, power, history - is what makes the photograph so powerful.
He's an artist that is interested with what society wants, demands and how that clashes with the ever changing politcal landscape.
In keeping with his radical ideas, he uses Twitter to communicate his thoughts and ideas - dangerous in Communist China. As someone who has experienced political injustice and savagery with his father as a child and also as an adult (sustained injury from Chinese police) he is especially accessible to the public rather than being a figure that outstrips others in terms of power.
It was totally shocking that the police had taken him without notice or giving information about his whereabouts for three long months - it seemed inhumane to me especially for something as annoyingly stupid as "tax evasion." The Chinese government clearly needed an excuse to explain his capture but it just doesn't justify a total of eighty one days without contact and lack of privacy or respect for Ai Wei Wei.
His assistants were also reportedly taken and not released till later without notice, which also shocked me because I didn't think the government would still be taking such aggressive means to exert their power. It seemed outdated, almost stupid to me because it was like a scene from the past, from Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. How can the government continue to do this even in the digital age, when information is rampant and society is based and focused on the access and distribution of knowledge?
Impossible.
Ai Wei Wei said that he "did not feel powerful. Maybe being powerful means being fragile." China prides itself for becoming a major power in the international community - but even in this fast paced and evolving economy, the government is fragile in its reassurance of its own power, because such a power can collapse with a snip of a thread. Ai Wei Wei is truly powerful because he knows that he is not invincible or untouchable to physicality, to brute force. He knows he is just a single person but in that he is a person with a voice.
All in all, a great film.
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