Ears ringing. History fading. Love forever.
September 23, 2012
September 1, 2012
Art and Activism
"Maybe to be powerful is to be fragile." -Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei flipping Tiananmen Square the bird.
The recently released documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, a film by Alison Klayman, is a brave and inspiring portrait of the artist and his pursuit of social justice in his home country of China by means of art and activism. Through photography, video, sculpture, architecture and, perhaps most importantly, social media, Ai cracks wide open a critique of the Chinese government and the motherland's relationship with her people.
Of course, this was and is very dangerous. Transparency is his mission, while opacity is the mission of those on the receiving end of his critique. Ai's widely publicized disappearance for 81 days in the spring of 2011 was a wake up call for the world, as he had already gained international acclaim before his arrest and disappearance, and we recognized him. Thank god, because that means that he had and still has a lot of support. How many other political dissidents, in China and elsewhere, go unrecognized and their disappearances unnoticed?
A fellow Chinese artist in the film talks about how Ai is considered a hooligan by the government and by supporters of the current regime. He says that it is the government that is the hooligan and Ai is working to bring this to light. Of course, hooliganism is exactly what members of Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist punk rock collective, were arrested and convicted of this past month. These brave women made enormous sacrifices to stand up to an oppressive government, with a song, in a church, singing "Virgin Mary, Mother of God, become a feminist, become a feminist, become a feminist."
See this film! Support Ai Weiwei! Free Pussy Riot!
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