Thursday, December 7, 2006

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist who only appeared on my radar fairly recently but since then he seems to be popping up left, right and centre. And I'm liking him a lot! Apart from the fact that some of his work involves ceramics (always guaranteed to make my nose twitch and my ears wiggle) he makes some pretty interesting observations on tradition and cultural stereotypes. When I first saw these coloured vessels I thought they were a playful interpretation of traditional Chinese ceramics, and in some ways they are that. But there is another dimension added to them when you read the little didactic panel that lets you know the vessels are actually authentic Chinese pottery dated 3500-5000BC....painted with acrylic. The other image is titled "Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn". ooooooohhhhhh.......
Galerie Meile has some more images of Ai Weiwei's work.

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