[Project #1] Installation Research Report

The artist I am presenting is Ai Weiwei from China. His installation art is very closely related to his family background. I think it is his upbringing that has shaped all of his current artistic ideas and thoughts.


He grew up in Xinjiang because his father was exiled there. So the family had to live underground, and they had to make all the furniture by themselves. This gave him the foundation for his subsequent artistic career. His ideology can be said to be basically the opposite of the Chinese government. So that's why he was monitored and talked to by the Chinese government. The same is the reason why he came to live in the United States afterwards. There are a lot of political factors in this, and it's very complicated. Although I don't want to mention it, I have to say that his artwork and politics are also closely related.


Like this Sunflower Seeds, there must be some political factors behind him that can be interpreted. He once said, "you can have your own interpretation of it." In China, sunflowers can represent the Communist Party. So in my opinion, I have the association that he put 100 million sunflower seeds in the exhibition hall, does it mean that he put sunflowers, that is, the Communist Party, in the exhibition hall for people to visit? Of course, this is just my personal imagination. Everyone can have a different interpretation. Although I have this interpretation about politics, I still don't want to link installation art too closely with politics.


Then, besides the political interpretation, a more grand interpretation is that it can show us the connection between the individual and the whole.


In the process of getting to know Ai Weiwei, I actually found a lot of things to discuss. But most of it has to do with politics. And in that there's the perception of China and America of him. The two have completely opposite accounts. So I don't want to get into who's right and who's wrong. Just focusing on the work itself was my only choice.


Overall, it was a very tangled yet rich process of investigation.


PPTX HERE



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