1. Ai Wei Wei
Born: 1957
Lives in Beijing

2. Forever 2003 READYMADE RECONTEXTUALISE RE APPROPRIATION
How does this Artwork fit within the
Post Modern Frame
READYMADE
RECONTEXTUALISE
RE APPROPRIATION
What is the artists intentions for the audience?
How is the artist commenting on society?
Ai Weiwei (Chinese, b. 1956) “Forever” Bicycles, Bicycles, x inches, x cm. Edition of 5

3. Utilitarian object
Circular in construction joined in a visual interesting way
References Duchamp
Iconic object
Symbol of Chinese life
Forever is the bicycle company who donated all the bicycles
Bicycle is a symbol of a peasant revolution
Where are the bikes / construction going – it’s going nowhere
Ai Weiwei (Chinese, b. 1956) “Forever” Bicycles, Bicycles, x inches, x cm. Edition of 5

4. DADA
For Dada artists, the aesthetic of their work was considered secondary to the ideas it conveyed. “For us, art is not an end in itself,” wrote Dada poet Hugo Ball, “but it is an opportunity for the true perception and criticism of the times we live in.”
They were also experimental, provocatively re-imagining what art and art making could be. Using unorthodox materials and chance-based procedures, they infused their work with spontaneity and irreverence. Wielding scissors and glue,
A central figure, Marcel Duchamp, declared common, manufactured goods to be “readymade” artworks, radically challenging the notion of a work of art as something beautiful made by a technically skilled artist.
Bicycle Wheel
Marcel Duchamp
(American, born France. 1887–1968)
1951. Metal wheel mounted on painted wood stool, 51 x 25 x 16 1/2" (129.5 x 63.5 x 41.9 cm)

5. Sunflower Seeds 2010/11 Ai Wei Wei Sunflower seeds
Tate Modern Turbine Hall
What is this sculpture made of? How and where is it exhibited in the gallery space? What art practices and conventions are challenged? What do you think this artwork could be about?

6. How does the audience interact with the artwork?
What decisions has Wei Wei made about this work, where and how it is exhibited?

8. Ai Weiwei’s Sunflower Seeds challenges our first impressions: what you see is not what you see, and what you see is not what it means.
There are over one hundred million seeds, five times the number of Beijing’s population and nearly a quarter of China’s internet users.
The work seems to pose numerous questions.
What does it mean to be an individual in today’s society?
Are we insignificant or powerless unless we act together?
What do our increasing desires, materialism and number mean for society, the environment and the future? 

10. The seeds were a potent symbol of the Cultural Revolution
The seeds were a potent symbol of the Cultural Revolution. The characterization of Mao as the sun, and the faithful as sunflowers turning to face him, was commonplace.
For Ai, sunflower seeds – carries personal associations with Mao Zedong’s brutal Cultural Revolution ( ). Where individuals were stripped of personal freedom.
Yet Ai remembers the sharing of sunflower seeds as a street snack and as a gesture of human compassion, providing a space for pleasure, friendship and kindness during a time of extreme poverty, repression and uncertainty.

11. Quotes from a conversation with Ai Weiwei on 31 May 2010 and 1 June 2010, Beijing (with Juliet Bingham and Marko Daniel)
AWW: In China, when we grew up, we had nothing … But for even the poorest people, the treat or the treasure we’d have would be the sunflower seeds in everybody’s pockets.
AWW: It’s a work about mass production and repeatedly accumulating the small effort of individuals to become a massive, useless piece of work.
AWW: China is blindly producing for the demands of the market … My work very much relates to this blind production of things. I’m part of it, which is a bit of a nonsense.

12. Cultural frame The cultural frame focuses on art having a cultural and social meaning, and considers the artist’s social and cultural environment and how this affects their artworks.
When discussing artworks within the cultural frame: What does reveal about the culture, society and place?
What traditions, styles and art movements may have shaped its production?
Does the artwork relate to race, place, religion, gender, time, politics or a particular event? If so, how are these relationships visually expressed?
How do the style, media and ideas of the work represent its content? Or how has the style, media and ideas of the artwork been influenced by its context?

13. Postmodern frame
The postmodern frame looks at the artwork being a challenger, or critique, of existing ideas of the time. The artwork can be considered a reappropriation, recontextualisation, parody and/or satire of other works in order to challenge existing ideas.  When discussing the postmodern frame: *Discuss the traditional ideas that have been challenged and how these preconceptions are challenged (i.e. the techniques the artist has employed to critique the status quo, etc. – appropriation, allusion, satire, parody, etc.)
What are the artist intentions for the audience?
What parts of popular culture have been borrowed to create this work?
Is the artist mocking or commenting on art, its audiences and/or society?
What are the contextual differences between the borrowed images and the new artworks, and what do these differences aim to achieve?

14. In your own time watch:
Ai Weiwei detained. Here is his TED film
Never Sorry available on Clickview

15. ‘Remembering’, Installation of backpacks for the facade of the Haus der Kunst (House of Art, Munich), 2009
Remembering

16. 100 meters long, 10m high (1000sq m installation in Germany)
Made of 9,000 backpacks
What does it say? ‘She lived happily for seven years in this world’ in Chinese characters.
What could this installation be about?

17. Made to remember those killed in the earthquake of Sichuan in 2008
This is a quote from a mother who’s child died in the Sichuan earthquake in Ai Weiwei said: “The idea to use backpacks came from my visit to Sichuan after the earthquake in May During the earthquake many schools collapsed. Thousands of young students lost their lives, and you could see bags and study material everywhere. Then you realize individual life, media, and the lives of the students are serving very different purposes. The lives of the students disappeared within the state propaganda, and very soon everybody will forget everything.”
Ai Weiwei has carefully chosen the Haus der Kunst for his retrospective also because of the museum’s history: It was built in 1937 by the fascist Nazi regime. It was opened with the anti-modernist propaganda show ‘Entartete Kunst’ (degenerate art).

18. After the violent earthquake that devastated the Sichuan province, killing more than 70,000 people, Weiwei used his blog to recruit a group of volunteers to help him delve into the causes underlying the catastrophe. The project resulted in a list — published online — which contained the names of over 5,000 children who'd perished in the collapse of the so-called "tofu buildings." The impact the list had on public opinion triggered the immediate black-out of Weiwei's blog by the Chinese police. But he was able to circumvent censorship, using Twitter to find support for his efforts.
The bright, vibrant colors, such as blue, red, yellow and green reflect the psyche of a child, their joy and innocence. In addition, the colors have been used for the Toys R Us logo.
Ai Weiwei severely criticises China's political leadership and demands an end to censorship. In August he was briefly arrested because of his political activities Upon the Haus der Kunst’s invitation, Ai Weiwei writes in the exhibition’s blog in English for the first time.

19. POST Modern Frame
Why do you think he chose to exhibit this artwork on the façade of the building?
What has he re-contextualised / reinterpreted?
What is Ai Wei Wei challenging with this artwork?
Cultural Frame
What significant events have influenced this artwork?
What signs and symbols reveal these meanings
What political stance is taken?

20. Visit the MOCA Los Angeles website http://www.moca.org/pc/viewArtTerm.php?id=30
Read through the information, make relevant bullet point notes.
Choose another Political artist eg, Goya, Picasso or one listed on the site. Reseach the artist and an example of their work and compare to Ai Wei wei

21. Liu Jianhua: Screaming Walls
Liu Jianhua, Trace
2011
Porcelain
Dimensions variable
Screaming Walls, a solo exhibition by famed sculptor, installation and ceramic artist Liu Jianhua, was specifically designed to suit the unique proportions of the UCCA Nave. All along the length of the Nave, the artist will hang over 200 pieces of black porcelain in various shapes and sizes on the white walls, creating the effect of black ink dripping down vast sheets of blank paper, and an atmosphere in which time seems to stand still.
Liu Jianhua employs dichotomies such as Yin/Yang, dark/light and active/passive to produce a sense of dynamism and inherent tension. Dark ornaments hang like pendants on pale walls; porcelain gleams against a matte surface; pieces of porcelain drip from the walls like black drops of ink, conveying a sense of movement, while the solidity of the porcelain suggests a static state. Then there is the relationship between the elegant and peaceful space in which the work is displayed – the long, high-ceilinged UCCA Nave – and the clamour of the real world outside. Screaming Walls is both a statement about the world in which we live and a contemplative space that allows viewers to cast their thoughts in a multitude of directions.

22. More information:
The time-honored medium of Chinese porcelain breaks from tradition, sometimes literally, at the hands of ceramicist Liu Jianhua. Liu foregoes decorative plates and vases in favor of objects like televisions, tires, or pocket-sized sculptures of headless, armless women. His strange figures recline in provocative poses, their tight dresses just barely covering them, but their lack of arms or faces puts pause on their sex appeal and makes them strange and creepy instead—like the cast-off toys of a particularly boisterous child.
Describe the artmaking practice of Liu JIANHUA,
compare it to Ai Wei Wei’s practice. How do these artists
Challenge traditional techniques and comment on
contemporary Chinese culture
Liu Jianhua
Color Ceramic Series - Game
Ceramic Sculpture 2000
52 x 52 x 23 cm

23.
Q.1 What was 85’ New Wave in China?
Q2 What happened in Tiananmen Square? Why was it significant?

24.
Ref:
Nowhere in the world has pottery assumed such importance as in China, and the influence of Chinese porcelain on later European pottery has been profound
THE MING DYNASTY
The Ming Dynasty is often called the last of the great Chinese dynasties. It ruled Ancient China from 1368 to It was followed by the Qing Dynasty.
Prior to the Ming Dynasty, China had been ruled by the Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty was set up by the Mongols who had conquered China about 100 years earlier. Many Chinese did not like the Mongols and considered them the enemy. Finally, the Mongols were overthrown and ousted from China by a peasant uprising.Art flourished during the Ming Dynasty. This included literature, painting, music, poetry, and porcelain. Ming vases made of blue and white porcelain were prized at the time throughout the world. They are still considered quite valuable.
Literature reached new heights during this era as well. Three of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature were written during the Ming Dynasty. They are Outlaws of the Marsh, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West.

25. Follow this link and read the information about the development of ceramics in China, then answer the questions below
Jar, Ming dynasty, Xuande mark and period (1426–1435)
China
Porcelain painted in underglaze blue; H. 19 in. (48.3 cm)
Jar, Ming dynasty, Jiajing mark and period (1522–1566)
China
Porcelain painted in underglaze blue and overglaze polychrome enamels; H. 9 1/8 in. (23.2 cm)

26. Q3 What factors contributed to the growth of the Chinese ceramics industry?
Q4 Why was Chinese ceramics valued?
Q5 What is the significance of Jingdezhen (in the southeast province of Jiangxi) in the history of Chinese ceramics?
Q6 Describe the kind of ceramics being produced and its effect/ influences on Europe?

27. ’85 New Wave: The Birth of Chinese Contemporary Art
A name for the conceptual and provocative artwork created in China between 1985 and 1989 that reacted to Socialist Realism, which had dominated Chinese art since the 1950s. ‘85 New Wave inspired various other groups, such as the Xiamen Dada group and the Northern Artists Group from Harbin. The movement reached its pinnacle with the 1989 “China Avant-Garde Exhibition” at the National Art Gallery in Beijing.
The 1980s in China represented a kind of explosive answer to the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 70s, when China was not only cut off from the rest of the world, but was also forced to disown and renounce its own culture. Suppression of such a powerful culture could only be met with an equal and opposite force. The result of this explosive reaction was the ’85 New Wave Movement. This search for new artistic language and dialogue sent art­ists in pursuit of multiple lines of enquiry. After decades of political movements, the line of modern Chinese artistic development had been seriously eroded, leaving only traces from which to reinvent a new culture. Forced to work almost from scratch, artists instigated a parallel and alternative contemporary art history to the West that brought Chinese art from strict socialist realism to mature experimental and conceptual practice in just a few years