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Sundance Channel Blog

Ai Weiwei

Tens of thousands donate to Ai Weiwei's tax bill

Article: Tens of thousands donate to Ai Weiwei's tax bill

Posted November 08th, 2011, 4:11 PM by

It’s been a tumultuous year for one of our favorite artists, Ai Weiwei who, after his 81 day long detention, was slammed with a punitive $2.4 million tax bill from the Chinese government. In a testament to his wide appeal and support, The New York Times reported that “thousands of people have responded by contributing money in a gesture that is at once benevolent and subversive” and “more than 20,000 people have together contributed at least $840,000.” This is unsurprising to any student of history or political movements…

Ai Weiwei's Google+ Profile

Article: Ai Weiwei's Google+ Profile

Posted October 05th, 2011, 2:10 PM by

Earlier this summer I blogged about Ai Weiwei’s exhibition at the Asia Society. He’s one of my favorite contemporary artists and the collection of photographs he snapped during his time in New York City in the 1980s is incredible. More incredible still: you can now browse many of his pictures from that era on his Google+ page. I was excited, but not surprised, to discover that this world renowned artist had an account on a social networking site. He’s long been active in social media in China, where his political (and critical) voice has earned the ire of the government, as well as two month imprisonment earlier this year…

Ai Weiwei's photos of New York City

Article: Ai Weiwei's photos of New York City

Posted July 08th, 2011, 1:07 PM by

Currently on display at NYC’s Asia Society Museum are a selection of 227 photographs (curated from thousands) snapped by artist Ai Weiwei of daily life during his residency here in the Big Apple in the 1980s. This is the first exhibition of his NYC photographs outside of Beijing. “Mr. Ai worked as a street artist…

Ai Weiwei's 'Sunflower Seeds'

Article: Ai Weiwei's 'Sunflower Seeds'

Posted October 18th, 2010, 2:10 PM by

Artist Ai WeiWei amongst his “Sunflower Seeds” (More photos below)
Lately, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has made more headlines for his outspoken socio-political activism in his homeland than he has for his art, but that changed last week when his latest installation was unveiled at the Tate Modern in London. Upon first glance, Sunflower Seeds is nothing more than a vast grey expanse in the Modern’s large Turbine Hall, but get closer and you’ll see that the grey floor is actually comprised of millions of individual sunflower seeds – hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds, made in China.