‘What Would Weiwei Do?’: Watch Studio Assistants of Ai Weiwei Reflect on How the Dissident Artist Taught Them to Speak Their Minds

In 2011, Ai
Weiwei‘s 12 bronze animal heads were erected at the Pulitzer
Fountain at Grand Army Plaza near Central Park, launching an
official multi-year world tour. At the unveiling, former Mayor
Michael Bloomberg was in attendance, but the artist was nowhere to
be found.

Ai had been arrested in China for so-called “economic crimes,”
as part of the country’s crackdown on figures speaking out against
the communist regime.

Art21 filmed that press conference in 2011, along
with exclusive interviews with Ai’s studio assistants who traveled
to New York in his place, as part of an episode titled “Change.”
The assistants, E-Shyh Wong and
Inserk Yang spoke about working in Ai’s studio and reflected on his
incarceration, telling Art21 that although at first they
wanted to stay quiet so as not to upset the Chinese government,
“then we think, what would Weiwei do? And he would probably make
the most noise of anybody…I don’t think the right way is to be
quiet.” 

The episode, part of PBS’s Art in the
Twenty-First Century series, also features and earlier
interview with Ai, who said of his work, “the media is the
message,” a particularly apt description for his poignant, often
ironic pieces. One work he mentions is a marble object in the shape
of a security camera, a comment on the intense observation he was
under in China.

“Once it’s become marble, it’s only being watched,” he said,
“it’s not functioning anymore.”

Watch the video, which originally appeared as part
of Art21’s PBS series Art in the Twenty-First Century, below.
Ai Weiwei’s Safe Passage, 2016 is on view on the facade of the
Minneapolis Institute of Art as part of “When Home Won’t Let You Stay: Art and
Migration” 

This is an installment of “Art on Video,” a collaboration
between Artnet News and Art21 that brings you clips of newsmaking
artists. A new series of the nonprofit Art21’s flagship series Art
in the Twenty-First Century is available now on PBS. Catch episodes
of other series like “New York Close Up” and “Extended Play” and
learn about the organization’s educational programs
at Art21.org.

The post ‘What Would Weiwei Do?’: Watch Studio Assistants of
Ai Weiwei Reflect on How the Dissident Artist Taught Them to Speak
Their Minds appeared first on artnet News.