Spatial Matters: Art Architecture and Activism (Mit Press) - Softcover

Weiwei, Ai

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0262525747 ISBN 13: 9780262525749

Publisher: MIT Press, 2014

Synopsis

A richly illustrated exploration of Ai Weiwei's installation and architecture projects, focusing on the artist's use of space.

Outspoken, provocative, and prolific, the artist Ai Weiwei is an international phenomenon. In recent years, he has produced an astonishingly varied body of work while continuing his role as activist, provocateur, and conscience of a nation. Ai Weiwei is under "city arrest" in Beijing after an 81-day imprisonment; he is accused of tax evasion, but many suspect he is being punished for his political activism, including his exposure of shoddy school building practices that led to the deaths of thousands of children in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2009, he was badly beaten by the police during his earthquake investigations.

Ai Weiwei's work reflects his multiple artistic identities as conceptual artist, architect, filmmaker, designer, curator, writer, and publisher. This monumental volume, developed in association with the artist, draws on the full breadth of Ai Weiwei's architectural, installation, and activist work, with a focus on his use of space. It documents a huge range of international projects with drawings, plans, and photographs of finished work. It also includes excerpts from Ai Weiwei's famous blog (shut down by Chinese authorities in 2009), in which he offers pithy and scathing commentary on the world around him. Essays by leading critics and art historians and interviews with the artist, drawing out his central concerns, accompany the 450 beautifully reproduced color illustrations of his work.

About this title

About the Author:

Ai Weiwei is an artist and activist. His recent exhibitions include "Sunflower Seeds" at the Tate Modern, London, a vast assemblage of handcrafted porcelain sunflower seeds; and six fiberglass dioramas depicting his 81-day imprisonment in 2011, shown at a Venice gallery in parallel with the 2013 Venice Biennale. He was a designer of the famous "Bird's Nest" stadium of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

From the Inside Flap:

Widely considered to be one of the most significant cultural figures of his generation in China and internationally, Ai weiwei successfully occupies multiple roles as a conceptual artist, architect, curator, designer, film-maker, publisher and activist. Using a variety of formal languages with both traditional and innovative methods of production, Ai links the past with the present and explores the geopolitical, economic and cultural realities affecting the world with humour and compassion.

This book, published in association with the artist, draws on the full breadth of Ai weiwei's architectural, installation and activist work, including drawings and plans from a huge range of international projects, with particular emphasis on his use of space. The publication will also include excerpts from his blog, in which his insightful commentary on the world around him comes to the fore. Throughout the book, a wide selection of essays by leading critics and art-historians, as well as interviews with the artist, draw out his central concerns.

An essential addition to any art lover's bookshelf, this publication will be richly illustrated with over 450 colour reproductions.

About this edition

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0262525747
• ISBN 13: 9780262525749
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 512
• Editor: Weiwei Ai, Pins Anthony, Mina An Xiao