Artist Ai Weiwei Holds First Exhibit
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
The Beijing Olympics opens in August and the world's attention will be focused on the spectacular main stadium, dubbed the ``bird's nest.'' But you probably won't find Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who conceptualized the design with Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, celebrating the Olympics with everyone else.
Ai does not want to be used in the Chinese government's propaganda. More than his contribution in designing the iconic Olympic stadium, Ai Weiwei is one of the leading figures in China's vibrant contemporary art scene.
Considering the great amount of interest in Chinese artists, it is no surprise that Ai is finally holding his first solo exhibition in Seoul at the Gallery Hyundai.
The exhibit features ``6.3.2006,'' a series of photographs he took of the Beijing National Stadium while it was being constructed.
The more significant pieces are from his ``Fairytale'' series, which were presented at the Kassel Documenta, Germany last year. For ``Fairytale ― Chairs,'' 1,001 wooden chairs from the Qing Dynasty were placed around the exhibition area at the Kassel Documenta.
He also invited 1,001 Chinese people to go to Kassel, the hometown of the fairytale writers Brothers Grimm, and stay in dormitory-style accommodations, all free of charge. ``Fairytale ― Luggage'' features the black and gray suitcases used by the Chinese visitors.
``I live in a very complicated society with an equally complicated history. For most of my life, whether humanity can be changed has always been question number one. Today we have certain essential conditions for fairness and justice in society. How to be a part of a social change is always a question in my mind. Even though I'm an artist, I'm not supposed to be too involved in politics, yet I'm still a part of it and I can never avoid it. It affects everybody's life. It affects your life. Art is also about personal consciousness and about individual expression. It's inevitable for me to put these together,'' Ai said, in the exhibition catalogue.
For the ``Fairytale ― Chairs,'' he used materials from doors and windows from destroyed Ming and Qing dynasty houses. The ``Map of China'' looks like a huge tree trunk, but it is made out of pieces of Tieli wood from the dismantled temples of the Qing Dynasty.
While his works all feature old objects, Ai said they don't necessarily relate to Chinese history. The objects are ones that you can easily find in China, he said.
``I'm very much interested in the perception of people, how they look at the objects and how some particular objects can carry certain messages, the meanings change by your manipulation and distortion. The value system, the judgment of whether something is real or fake, valuable or not valuable,'' he said.
Also included in the exhibit are photographs ``Study of Perspective ― White House'' and ``Study of Perspective ― Tiananmen Square'' which feature the artist's hand giving the finger at these famous landmarks.
Ai is the son of the Chinese poet Ai Qing. Because of his father, the family suffered during the Cultural Revolution. His father and the rest of the family was sent to a labor camp, and they were only able to return home in Beijing when he was 18 years old.
He enrolled at the Beijing Film Academy in 1978, and went to New York in 1981 to study at Parsons School of Design. He returned to Beijing in 1994, where he co-founded the China Art Archives and Warehouse with Hans van Dijk, Frank Uytterhaegen and the Modern Chinese Art Foundation.
Ai feels comfortable holding his first solo exhibition in Seoul. ``I agreed to it, probably because Korea is very close and is a place where I feel very safe. Chinese and Koreans look alike, I don't think they will beat me up or anything. So I was like `okay then.' If it's not good, I definitely will make a better one in the future... It's exciting just to see all my works together. It'd nice to see them in a different situation and new location, which might bring some interesting aspects to light where they are concerned,'' he said.
The exhibition runs through June 1. Visit www.galleryhyundai.com or call (02) 734-6113.