MCLC: Ai Weiwei vase broken in local protest (1)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Anne Henochowicz <anne at chinadigitaltimes.net>
Subject: Ai Weiwei vase broken in local protest (1)
***********************************************************

One might expect Ai Weiwei to be proud, except he's not.

Anne

==========================================================

Source: China Real Time blog, WSJ (2/18/14):
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/02/18/ai-weiwei-sees-no-irony-after
-vase-smashed/

Ai Weiwei Sees No Irony After Vase Smashed
By Richard Silk

Chinese artist Ai Weiwe has drawn criticism from some in the art world
over the years for covering ancient vases with brightly colored industrial
paint.

But after a museum visitor in Miami smashed one $1 million specimen in an
apparent artistic statement of his own, Mr. Ai said he wasn’t impressed.

“I don’t encourage anyone to protest by destroying other people’s
property,” he said in an interview.

The Associated Press reported that Maximo Caminero, 51, was charged with
criminal mischief following the smashing on Sunday at the Perez Art Museum
Miami. The AP cited a police affidavit that said Mr. Caminero told
officers he broke the vase to protest the museum’s lack of local artist
displays and because “the museum only displayed international artists’
art.”

The affidavit listed the value of the vase at $1 million, the AP said. It
was one of 16 repainted Han Dynasty urns on display as part of an
exhibition of Mr. Ai’s works.

The exhibition itself may have sent mixed messages. The same display
featured photographs of Mr. Ai himself dropping another urn dated to the
Han dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD) and watching it shatter on the ground. In
the past he has painted over even older pottery, in some cases
superimposing the Coca-Cola logo on the original Neolithic decoration.

But Mr. Ai had little time for comparisons between Mr. Caminero’s protests
and his own destructive tendencies. “It’s very different,” he said. “What
I destroyed didn’t belong to anybody else.”

Mr. Ai’s own unconventional use of ancient ceramics is intended to make
viewers re-examine their attitudes to art and to the past. “By destroying
it, I raised some new questions about it. There’s much complexity in the
act.”

In a statement, the museum said it is working with authorities. “We have
the highest respect for freedom of expression, but this destructive act is
vandalism and disrespectful to another artist and his work,” it said.

Still, Mr. Ai saw a positive, saying it could attract more interest to the
Perez show, which he said had been very quiet. “Now the show will be
noticed,” he said. “Are people really interested in the art, or something
else?”

Mr. Ai, the son of a well-known poet who fell out of favor with the
Communist Party, spent much of his childhood in Chinese labor camps. His
work has ranged from the respectable – he was an artistic consultant on
the “Bird’s Nest” stadium built for 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics – to the
profane. For one early piece he cut a hole in the lower reaches of a
trench coat and attached a condom.

Most recently, he has gained a reputation as a political activist. He drew
attention to the deaths of thousands of children who were killed when
shoddily built schools collapsed in a 2008 earthquake. Another recent
piece, a map of China made out of 1,800 tins of baby formula, poked fun at
the country’s demand for milk powder and its terrible record of food
safety.

Mr. Ai spent three months in detention in 2011 on charges on tax evasion,
which he denied. He lost his attempts to fight it in court and was hit
with a bill for $2.4 million.

– Richard Silk. Follow him on Twitter @richardjsilk
<http://www.twitter.com/richardjsilk>
Follow @ChinaRealTime <http://twitter.com/chinarealtime> on Twitter for
the latest updates.