The book 'Ai Weiwei speaks' records a series of convocations with the artist and Hans Ulrich Obrsit I am particularly interested in the convocations on Ai Weiwei's work on 'The Black Cover Book', 'The Grey Cover Book' and 'The White Cover Book'. A project produced when Ai Weiwei returned from New York and set out to show the Chinese people examples of modern and contemporary art. As there was strict censorship in China and no examples of the celebration of non communist art Ai Weiwei took it on himself to create a publication for the Chinese people that would have to be sold privately and distributed through word of mouth. I love this idea of pushing communication of art as a kind of illegal act, trying to express the right of freedom of speak through the medium of an art book is very provocative and exciting.
These images show the books and the kind of work they showcased from iconic twentieth-century artworks by Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons to contemporary Chinese sculptures, photographs and painting. For my practical piece I am thinking off creating a kind of online version of this idea, a book to inform and inspire. As Ai Weiwei states the internet is the best way of communicating to people so why not create something for the web. I want to possibly look at how political art online has taken shape over the last few years and document this in an engaging and expressive way.
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