Running head: CHINESE ARTISTS, AI WEIWEI AND ZHANG XIAOZANG 1
CHINESE ARTISTS, AI WEIWEI AND ZHANG XIAOZANG 7
Chinese artists, Ai Weiwei and Zhang Xiaozang
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Introduction
Having been born in china and grown up in china, Ai Weiwei has brought significant contribution to the work of art in china. Over many years in his career, he has made several publications in the field of art up to date. The latest works of art by Ai include the “Divine comedy”footnoteRef:1. This is one of the music albums produced in Beijing in the year 2013. This was intended to commemorate his second anniversary after being released from 81 days secret detention. This release has a combination of six songs which are totally different from one another. However, Ai’s intention to produce this music albums was intended to present his new way of channeling his expressions. The album was produced in June 22 by Ai with the support of zouxiao zozhou where they also featured commentaries on current events, some personal reflections as well as documentations of real dialogue. This music covers the entire genre with much influence coming from pop, rock as well as punk and heavy metal. Through this music, we can discover Ai’s life experiences with the life conditions in china. 1: Ai, Weiwei, and Lee Ambrozy. Ai Weiwei’s Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006-2009. MIT Press, 2011.
An example is the “Dumbass” which is his first piece of music release in “The Divine Comedy”. This song explains the conditions he had gone through during his detention. The conditions are said to have been totally restrictive though at times the guards would allow Ai to sing for them. Ai argues that according to his observations the only way that the guards had to kill him was through music. He recalls that he only knew of the revolutionary songs and thus he could not sing something that made him feel so sorry. Just like many other Chinese men singing required that one memorized the red songs. Ai too came up with the Ai flower campaign that mobilized every person to create a flower in memory of at least a childfootnoteRef:2. This is because most of the children had become victims of the Sichuan earthquake that had taken place in December 2008. Ai had undergone an 81 day detainment on claims of evading taxes and online transmission of pornographic documents. The Chinese artist Ai was arrested by Chinese authorities which used the “fake case” claims against him. This was however understood as a political retaliation created against Ai simply because he had been outspoken. This critics’ simply came from the government and its officialsfootnoteRef:3. Despite this criticism, Ai is a known activist and too an architect in china. He is also credited for being a curator, a film maker with experience and one of the china’s most famous artists. After his release on 2011, Ai sees himself as a dissident government rather than a dissident artist. 2: Ai, Weiwei, and Lee Ambrozy. Ai Weiwei’s Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006-2009. MIT Press, 2011. 3: Ai, Weiwei, and Lee Ambrozy. Ai Weiwei’s Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006-2009. MIT Press, 2011.
Ai is known to have given contribution to several works in china that include criticizing the government on issues concerning human rights and democracy. He has too investigated issues concerning government corruption and the several cover ups. The most specific cases include the Sichuan schools corruption scandal which led to the collapse of the so called “tofu-dreg schools” that came with the Sichuan earthquakefootnoteRef:4. The Sichuan earthquake that had an 8.0 magnitude had hit the country in Sichuan province. Ai decided to engage on an activist role where he led a team that surveyed the earth quake as well as film the post-quake conditions that had come in the disaster zones. The government decided to hide the real information about the exact number of students who had perished in the catastrophe. This provoked Ai to recruit willing citizens who investigated the issue and revealed the names and exact numbers of students who had perished. Few days later, Ai posted a blog that he called “citizens’ investigations”footnoteRef:5. In this blog wrote, “To remember the departed, to show concern for life, to take responsibility and the potential happiness of the survivors, we are initiating a “citizens investigation” We will seek out the names of each departed child, and we will remember them.” Ai later managed to publish the names as well as other articles in his blog something that was shut by the Chinese authorities. 4: Ai, Weiwei, and Lee Ambrozy. Ai Weiwei’s Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006-2009. MIT Press, 2011. 5: Ai, Weiwei, and Lee Ambrozy. Ai Weiwei’s Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006-2009. MIT Press, 2011.
Ai is too credited for several other documentaries including the Beijing video works, the Chang’an Boulevard the second and third ring of Beijing. The documentaries too included the fairytale and the little girls’ cheeks. A major contribution of Ai that cannot be excluded from his works is the commissioning of sunflower seeds in 2010. This took place in the gray volume of the Tate Moderns Turbine Hall. The products were manufactured right inside the country using traditional means that promoted the art of paintings. This greatly increased employment opportunities with over 1600 artisans getting employed.
Other prolific artists in the Chinese history and works of production include Zhang Xiaogang. As an artist he had practiced the art of painting that had taken him out of home. However he came back to his own people in the city of Kumming in the year 1993. This time he found a collection of old family photographs that he believes serve him as a source of inspiration in the art work that was characterized by the paintings during the time of Cultural Revolution. Some critics in China argue that Zhang had brought a new form of art in china that used charcoal technology that could create iconic images of the troubled Chinese families during the instability times of 1966-1976. This paintings too display the interdependence and the existing relationships between family membersfootnoteRef:6. Most of this pictures is what existed all-round the city of Beijing. Though Zhang’s works had managed to sell over $40000, most of the critics still believe that this works are not truly original or even innovative. 6: Zhang Xiaogang. Lines of descend: The family in contemporary Asian Art. Queensland Art Gallery Travelling Exhibition. (1958) 64-86.
In what the country refers to as the burst of fame, Zhang has managed to rise in the ranks of the world’s known living artistsfootnoteRef:7. Many people are still scrambling to find a hold on Zhang’s works even though he has been renown all over the world just like other artists who include Jeff Koon’s and Lucian Freud. Zhang had gone to the Sichuan academy of art where he met fellow students whom together they natured their talents in the art work and perfected on their skills. In the school, Zhang enrolled in the department of oil painting. However, Zhang did not perfectly blend with the other students and shortly after graduating from the school he missed a teaching job something that made him go back home. This led to his times in despair after missing the teaching opportunity in the school. After he returned back home, he engaged on construction jobs which later led him to find part time jobs in painting. This time his career began stabilizing when he found a job in doing stage and designing of costumes for a dance group in Yunnan Province. It is during this time when he also studied philosophy where he at some point contemplated suicide but it failed. 7: Zhang Xiaogang. Lines of descend: The family in contemporary Asian Art. Queensland Art Gallery Travelling Exhibition. (1958) 64-86.
At this point in life, Zhang had drawn many pictures that mostly shown people on problems, dead people and skullsfootnoteRef:8. Immediately after 1989 Zhang and many other artists in china began to grow delusions with the existing social and political scene in China. Beginning the 1990s, Zhang began sharpening his past symbolizing a spectacular rise as an artist. In the year 1992 Zhang stopped paintings so as to reflect on his past and travelled to Germany. In Germany he visited several museums and observed pictures he had longed to see. This is what led him to rethink on his styles of work since he believed that European art had something to do with the culture. The return home made Zhang change his paintings and upon getting a ready market he painted nearly all the walls of his town with his mother’s images. This time Zhang improved on his painting with an advancement of painting black and white related faces that seemed disturbed and could be traced back to the 1920s. This saw the improvement in his career where he could produce very clear pictures and by the year 1997 Zhang made his solo exhibition after a long time of denial. 8: Zhang Xiaogang, Gream Murray. Reckoning in the past: Contemporary Chinese paintings (exh.cat) Fruit market Gallery. Edinburgh (1996) 95
It is evident how Zhang’s displayed nostalgia in his paintings. As an artist, he utilizes the old Chinese photographs from the traditions. Under special lighting, he manages relay his message that gives his subjects an idea about the intended message to the audience. His pictures too display emotions and turn detached faces to the audience an action that symbolizes a complete and organized work of art. According to Zhang Xiaogang, the faces portrayed are a representative of a society that is striving to maintain its existence in a highly competitive environmentfootnoteRef:9. People in the society tend to hide their individual personalities and the past experiences they have undergone in life. Keeping out the idea of gender difference people behave the same in this society in a way that one can hardly differentiate between men and women. Zhang too argues that we all live as a big family more of a society and hence the need to protect ourselves and our virtues rather than keeping blame on others. According to him people should live in harmony within the society. 9: Zhang Xiaogang, Gream Murray. Reckoning in the past: Contemporary Chinese paintings (exh.cat) Fruit market Gallery. Edinburgh (1996) 95
References
Ai, Weiwei, and Lee Ambrozy. Ai Weiwei’s Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006- 2009. MIT Press, 2011.
John Jervis. Art Asia Specific: Sunflower Seeds Ai Weiwei (2011) 101
Zhang Xiaogang, Gream Murray. Reckoning in the past: Contemporary Chinese paintings (exh.cat) Fruit market Gallery. Edinburgh (1996) 95
Zhang Xiaogang. Lines of descend: The family in contemporary Asian Art. Queensland Art Gallery Travelling Exhibition. (1958) 64-86.
