TITLE OF ASSIGNMENT:

THE SNAKE CEILING BY AI WEIWEI

COURSE CODE/NAME:
FTA421/ PHILOSOPHY OF THE ARTS

LECTURER’S NAME:
DR SANGHAMITRA DALAL

STUDENT’S NAME:
NOR AIMI ATHIRAH BINTI ZUKEFLY (2020983499)

PROGRAM/ GROUP:
FF238/ FTA422M

SUBMISSION DATE:
20TH NOVEMBER 2020
 Ai Weiwei, an activist from China, has been known internationally as the most dangerous and
dissident artist in the world. He is frequently being harassed and detained by his home country due to
his political outspokenness and subversive dimension of art towards Chinese authorities and yet that
never stopped him from making artworks. As a result, he has a become a symbol of rightist among the
Chinese society.

This is one of Ai Weiwei’s sculptural installation at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C,
United States. This Snake Ceiling was a part of Ai Weiwei: According to What? An exhibition that
showcase his variety of artworks even it is provocative to his country’s authorities. Technically, this
1180-foot-long sculpture was made of hundreds student backpacks, latched together in the shape of
snake. The installation was constructed on August 17, 2013 in advance for the Ai Weiwei exhibition.

From my side of view, the Snake Ceiling is the most prominent one among of Ai Weiwei’s
artworks as it looks more aesthetic than others. While looking for a contemporary artist on the
internet, this sculpture installation got me hooked instantaneously. One of the reasons is, at first sight,
I thought the whole installation is about a big python hanging on the ceiling. But if you look closely,
there was hundreds of backpacks attached together in a snake form. The display is captivating from
every aspect. I like the way Ai Weiwei considered to exhibit his primary subject, which is the backpacks,
in animal form as it is very approachable and attractive for me to dig more the deep meaning behind
his art. The installation art also did not taking up much space, even it is about 1000-foot-long sculpture
as it was hanging on the ceiling, which is also a creative method to present it to the audiences. The
combination of pattern and color on each bag also makes the art looks more interesting because it
brings the image of real snake body pattern. Even though the display is static, we can see the
movement of the snake as it was moving. The artist has used the elements of arts throughout his
artwork which forces the viewer’s gaze to move around the piece rather than sticking with one focal
point.

The idea of the artwork began around 2008 when there is a massive earthquake in Sichuan,
China barely after his return to the Beijing. More than 80,000 of lives died in the disaster and most of
them were young students from the university and school. According to Clary (2012), Ai vividly
remember the view of numerous piles of backpacks who was belong to the students at the disaster
site.

The hundreds of backpacks used in the sculpture installation are meant represent more than
5000 students who died in the Sichuan’s earthquake when their shoddily constructed school
collapsed. Apart from that, Ai Weiwei also applied symbolism in the artwork as he used natural thing
which is a snake because there is a mystical belief a spirit of snake symbolizes healing and
transformation of life changing. Both were pointed to the victim’s family who are affected and
traumatized by the loss of their loved one in the large-scale tremblor. Furthermore, Ai Weiwei
featuring the Snake Ceiling as a division of his catharsis. That is why the Snake Ceiling can be constitute
as an art. Based on Coell (1999), Aristotle said that art was made for the purpose of carthasis, to purge
the emotions (p. 20). To commemorate them, Ai decided to create this giant snake sculpture as a part
of the way to remembering them. He expressed his multiplicity of emotions and thoughts of Sichuan’s
victims throughout this sculpture artwork. We can see the students’ backpacks become preferred
subjects for the artist in portraying the grieve and sorrow feelings which he felt towards the children
after the huge devastation. Undoubtedly, the Snake Ceiling is one of the foremost contemporary
artworks which represents expressionism because Ai Weiwei successfully shared his inner feeling and
personal experiences of his life, thus manage to resonate far beyond the world of art which he can
communicate to other people and society throughout his piece of artwork. It is stated that an art is
primarily focused on the expression or communication of emotion which the artist can externalized
his or her inner emotional state and share it out to the other viewers, readers, and listeners (Coell,
1999, p. 61).

Likewise, Ai Weiwei’s artworks never escape from the complicative issues and propagandas
behind the Chinese authorities. Snake Ceiling was one of his attempts to reveal the hidden crime under
the political regime. Due to Sichuan’s earthquake, Chinese government intentionally conceal and
control all the information, even the statistic number of deaths which triggering Ai Weiwei to launch
an investigation team using online media. Weiwei (2018) has stated that school building, constructed
by the state supposed to have secured and withstand structure. Overwhelmed with pain and anger
towards the authorities which refused to acknowledged any accountability nor announced number of
deaths, Ai Weiwei and his set up online investigation team managed to find around 5000 names of
the students who died in the disaster only after one year since the first day of research.

To ensure the children nor the devastation remembered, Ai Weiwei has recorded their names
and post it in his popular blog. A moment after his intention get caught by the government, they
instantly shut it down and sent the Chinese police to beat Ai Weiwei until he was admitted into the
hospital because of the brain damaged. However, his popularity as an artist has risen since this issue
came up. Currently, he has become the most powerful figure in the contemporary art, as he
courageously brings out sensitive issue throughout his artworks which could not raise publicly in
China.
References

Carrol, N. (1999). Philosophy of Art: A Contemporary Introduction. Routledge.

Glary, G. (2012, October 25). Chinese Dissident Ai Weiwei’s art becomes his Messenger. Retrieved
from https://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/13/us/weiwei-exhibit-washington/index.html.

Weiwei, A. (2018, February 25). Ai Weiwei: The artwork that makes me the most dangerous person
in China. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/feb/15/ai-weiwei-
remembering-sichuan-earthquake.