- Sound work okay back there?
[ MAYOR BLOOMBERG ] It is a bittersweet honor to welcome all of you here today
to celebrate a remarkable piece of public art
by one of the world’s most creative and courageous public citizens,
Ai Weiwei.
Ai Weiwei could not be with us here for this unveiling of his latest work,
"Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads."
Even though he could not be with us physically
he continues to speak to us, to delight us,
to challenge us through his art.
In its scale and accessibility, "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads"
follows in New York City’s proud tradition of
presenting unforgettable public art that everyone can enjoy.
Ai Weiwei believes that art should be for everyone
and we couldn’t agree more.
[ E-SHYH WONG ] We call him in
Chinese... [ speaking Chinese ] which is Teacher Ai.
And he is always very conscious that if we’re learning about something new.
For every project he wants to make sure that there’s
learning involved and it’s not just you know doing any menial task.
[ INSERK YANG ] He gives a lot of freedom and…
actually you know.
He’s not the kind of artist that imposes his creative decisions
on his assistants and coworkers to be executed you know.
[ E-SHYH WONG ] Well with any proposal we get,
what’s very important to Weiwei
is the space and how he can use the space.
He has a lot of craftsmen
and a lot of people working with him.
As he works directly with us, he works directly with them.
[ INSERK YANG ] The studio always used to be
in a state of constant flux you know.
Always many people coming, especially in the last couple of years
that we call volunteers you know.
They come for a certain kind of interest,
are mostly Chinese, mostly young people.
Often are not related to art at all you know.
And so we have housewives really coming to our place and,
and telling Weiwei that they think his, his work has some kind of meaning
and they would like to be part of it.
And usually he just, if he feels like that there’s
enough passion to go this way, then he accepts that you know.
[ E-SHYH WONG ] Every day people are coming up to us
and giving us proposals of something they can do to help Weiwei.
At first we thought, "Okay, maybe we should stay quiet a bit,
because we don’t want to upset the Chinese government."
But then we think, "What would Weiwei do?"
And he would probably make the most noise of anybody.
So I think we still,
he’s still very careful about what he does.
He doesn’t just make noise to make it.
So I think we’re, we’re thinking,
we’re trying to think very clearly about the right approach,
but I don’t think we think the right way is to be quiet.
[ INSERK YANG ] That’s true, don’t be quiet.
[ GREG HILTY ] It’s sad not to see him
because he’s a very entertaining and very charismatic figure.
He's good to be around.
It’s been very strange obviously installing a show without the artist.
You know normally that’s a prerequisite
and you really wait for the artist to come.
Obviously we have our own ideas about how to use the gallery
and what we want, but there’s always things change.
We decided to put the posters up because normally an artist is here
and had arranged interviews and we would expect him
to be able to speak.
So we thought that actually getting his voice out there was important.
And we just chose a small selection of very pertinent, timeless quotes.
As is well known, Ai Weiwei is the son of
a very famous poet, Ai Qing.
He grew up knowing that art was both very powerful and very controversial.
He kind of ran away from that and ran away from China in the late ‘80s
and went to New York.
Had a period of, I guess, reflection and absorbing things.
He was making work but he wasn’t really pursuing
a strong career as an artist.
And I think you know those two influences
when he finally came back to China in the mid-90s,
really set him up to take a stand and enter the Chinese cultural world
and art world with a very strong voice.
There are a couple of works in the show
that for me are very important and, and very poignant.
There’s security camera which he’s made in marble
and representing on a plinth.
You know security cameras are very prevalent for…
in all of our lives there.
They kind of are the background to our lives and we take them for granted.
For him it was very present, it wasn’t just in the background,
but he was you know specifically under surveillance
for a number of years.
He in one way took that quite lightly.
He was, he would chat to the security guards, sort of plainclothes people who’d come
and stand outside his house.
And he’d sort of shake their hands and you know he was quite relaxed
when we said, isn’t this, "Isn’t this disturbing?"
But obviously it is disturbing and what’s happened has been terrible.
The other thing that’s interesting about that is that while he’s made this kind of
monument in marble of a security camera,
he adopted another strategy which was to put his life in
as public a view as possible.
When I went to see him in the studio he tweeted,
you know, 20 times during our first hour-long meeting.
And I guess the principle is that as long as everything is out in the open,
there’s nothing to spy on.
So he had nothing to hide actually.
He works in many different ways, but each one of those ways he uses
in its own terms and as, as simply and clearly
and strongly as possible to give testimony to the world he’s living in.
[ indistinct conversation ]
[ cat meows ]
[ INTERVIEWER ] How did you decide to become an artist?
[ AI WEIWEI ] Uh, how?
The decision is not made very,
I should say, not very seriously.
I mean this is a, there’s not much choice there
when I start to do art.
You’re either non-artist, which means you’re,
can be a worker, farmer, or soldier.
Or you become somebody who
at that time I would call art-worker you know.
So since I’m a bit familiar with art, because of my father,
so I just picked up this. And, uh, you know not very successful.
You know I, I spent years.
I called myself an artist, but not really.
I don’t have many works, or, or nothing people would appreciate.
Till very late, you know 2004, I started to have shows.
And...which surprised me also you know.
You’re always someone, you’re capable to be.
Or you know when they say you can make chandeliers,
you are, you’re a chandelier maker.
And it’s very convincing.
I mean more convincing than anything else.
That’s why they call me political activist, I guess.
Actually I never really re-think about my work you know, it’s already past.
It’s a crooked coffin.
I think yeah,
you can use it as a table too,
to take a nap or something.
The media is the message,
I mean in many cases which is true,
not you know even in the classic sense.
The...it, it carries the full intention and the meaning.
Once you change it, it is, it’s very disturbing.
Yeah, those are really are useless objects.
I’m very much interested in this so-called useless object.
I mean you… it takes perfect craftsmanship,
beautiful material and carefully measured and crafted.
But at the same time, it’s really useless. I mean...
You need something people can realize is art you know,
otherwise they think you are too political or you’re too....
You’re… "What are you doing, it’s not art."
Or, or "You'll never get it," You know.
So sometimes you have to say,
"Oh, I’m an artist." You know. "I can do this." You know.
[ laughs ]
I think I’m interested in these kind of activities,
so-called art is,
is only because that’s always dealing with new possibilities.
The audio component with Harvard backpack installation is the,
reading of the 5,000 names of the dead students victimized by the earthquake.
My carpenters always need job.
They always say, "Well Weiwei, what next we can do?"
So I, I really have no ideas what, you know I, I’m not a....
I don’t have so much ideas.
I said that maybe we try this bowl. And it was come from a plastic cat toy.
And they said, "This is very difficult."
So I said, "Okay, that’s the purpose."
So take them like a, a year or so you know
to try to figure out how to make this structure without nails.
Gradually, it become a game for them.
They really love it.
Even this has no purpose, but they accept it because it’s so difficult.
Yeah, I mean, surveillance has, it’s a very clear meaning.
It's to monitor, you know or secretly --secretly monitor…
monitor people’s behaving or....
But once it’s become a marble, it’s only being watched.
It’s not functioning anymore, you know.
[ siren blaring, traffic ]
[ Announcer ] To learn more about "Art in the Twenty-First Century"
and it's educational resources,
please visit us online at: PBS.org/art21
"Art in the Twenty-First Century" is available on DVD.
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