The Works of Ai Wei Wei - Essay Example

The Works of Ai Wei WeiOf all the works of Ai Wei Wei, I particularly focused on the sunflower seeds because I was enthralled with the effort behind the exhibition. Just when one thought that it was a real sunflower seed, it was in fact made of porcelain. In particular, he chose the image and symbol of porcelain seeds because it represents the support of the people to the revolution of Mao Zedong - the Chairman being the sun and the ordinary people around him the sunflowers.I also checked his other works and the images and symbols he uses are everyday mundane things like seeds, chairs, vase, crabs etch.

I believe that he is trying to tell that we can create beauty out of everyday ordinary things and that they could represent a bigger and grander idea.According to Wei Wei, our respective culture is the context and “lens” by which we see and interpret the world. Thus, we assign value to images and symbols differently. One may be important to other culture while it may be without meaning to other cultures. We can cite the example of Wei Wei’s sunflower seeds as an example. For the outsider, one may see it as a literal sunflower seed that in the beginning of the video, some of Wei Wei’s audience even tasted it to check if it is real.

To the Chinese however, especially those who lived during the revolution and the time of Chairman Mao Zedong, the sunflower seeds meant something else. It is not just seeds of a sunflower but represented the number of people that supported the revolution. The seeds were so many because the ordinary people of China that supported the Chairman were also so many. As an artist, Ai Wei Wei viewed his role as someone who challenges his audience to ask new questions. He wants to create as an artist, the basic structure which can be open to possibilities.

His artworks have political connotations also and Wei Wei would like his audience to engage them with his artworks as a medium to instigate curiosity that would foster understanding and hopefully to make it a happier place just like the seed makers in Wei Wei’s artwork who were happy to do create the porcelain sunflower seeds because it gives them livelihood and meaning. Ai Wei Wei’s artworks are not just for aesthetic purpose that conveys beauty where its audience can appreciate joy in the magnificence of their artwork.

If one would examine closely, Wei Wei’s artwork has political significance and invites audience to ask questions. For example, in this website http://www.imamuseum.org/accordingtoaiweiwei/ that featured Weiwei, each boxes of his overturns with a challenging question to the audience which causes us to rethink about certain things. He even dared us to ask sensitive questions such if we “believe there will be democracy in China?”. In a way, he wants us to be an activist, or an active participant of our world and this made him a teacher as well in addition to being an artist.

This approach of Wei Wei of awakening the activist in us made me realize that I can make art with everyday things and that they do not need to be expensive. Also, I realize that artwork can also be used to channel certain ideas, ideologies, goals, or whatever abstract ideas that could invite the audience to understand and think.