Ai Weiwei

Artist Presentation
Background

Ai Weiwei was born on May 18th, 1957 In

Beijing, China

His upbringing had an extremely rough start,

on August 28th 1957 communist officials
accused Ai Qing (Weiwei’s father)of being a
rightist, exiling the family to remote locations.
They were sent to the northeastern province of
Heilongjiang and then to the northwestern
autonomous region of Xinjiang before being
allowed to return to Beijing in 1976, at the end
of the Cultural Revolution.
Background
Weiwei always had a strong interest in art
Enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy in 1978
Weiwei felt tied down to the “intellectual stimulation”
due to everyone’s restrictions in Chinese society
Moves to NYC in 1981
Attends Parsons school of design
Start of Career

Started off as a painter in school but quickly switched to

sculpting
His big inspirations at the time were French artist Marcel
Duchamp and the German sculptor Joseph Beuys
In one of his first exhibitions he bent a wire hanger into the
outline of Duchamp as well as a violin with a shovel handle as
a neck
Start of Career

Everything was going quite well for Weiwei until he found

out that his father we quite ill. This news led him to move
back to Beijing
The move back did not stop him from creating new pieces
He began to modernize cultural heritage by transforming old
Chinese artifacts
Developed Artist

Between the years of 1994 and 1997, Ai Weiwei worked on 3

books promoting avant-garde art from China
With them all being published outside of the govt officials he
became the signpost for China’s underground artist
community
He would decide to stay home and build his own complex at
the edge of Beijing in 1999
Big Projects

Sunflower Seeds
Ginormous sculpture that can be gazed upon from the Turbine
Hall bridge, or viewed at close range
This meaning behind this piece is a gesture of human compassion,
providing a space for pleasure, friendship and kindness during a
time of extreme poverty, repression and uncertainty
Big Projects

Forever(Bicycles)
A “forever bicycle” was seen as a luxury to him growing
up
The bikes symbolized freedom to move for him
The status of having a bike also meant best of the best
Big Projects

Restablecer Memorias
“installation in Mexico that tells the story of 43
students likely massacred five years ago in a
case that exposed government stonewalling
and complicity in abuses, a frequent theme for
the dissident artist.”
“installation features large portraits of the
students made from a million multi-colored
Legos that hover above a cavernous exhibit
space, images that have become seared into the
Mexican conscience by grieving family
members who often hoist posters with the
same images at protests demanding answers for
their sons' disappearance.”
Video