A Contemporary Artist From The Art 21 PBS Web Site - Assignment Example

Contemporary Artist from the Art 21 PBS Website Affiliation) Art 21 refers to art in the twenty first century which mainly features visual artists and art in the contemporary art. It is a non-profitable organization which is an archive for the contemporary art to which it can be used as an educational resource and a teaching aid by enabling people to learn. Being started in 1997 it has been able to make contemporary art reach to the public and introduce key players in contemporary art encouraging creativity.

Art 21 is a PBS series broadcast on television and also online which features living artists who are brought to talk about their art and their influence in the arts they produced (Buskirk, 2005). The episodes produced in each season have different types of theme like spirituality, identity, power, and humor among others. Some of the contemporary artists featured include Sally Mann, Kerry James, and Mel Chin among others (Ai Weiwei, 2012). Introduction The first season of Art21 was premiered in 2001 its seasons being produced in every two years and has been able to spread in more than fifty countries.

In this context we will cover season six which is the current one in 2012 in which Ai Weiwei was interviewed. He is known to be an outspoken activist of human rights and in this episode he was featured in the theme of change. His art included photographs, sculptures and also public artworks which were about politics. 1. Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist born on 18th May 1957 in Beijing, China. He is one of the founders of Avant-garde art in 1978 to which the group disbanded in 1983 (Ai, 2011).

He lived in United States, New York from 1981 to 1993 and studied at Parsons School of Design and also at the Art Student League of New York. He later returned to China and published three books on the new generation of artists. Ai Weiwei received a doctorate from the University of Ghent, Belgium from the faculty of Politics and Social science in 2010.He was arrested in 2011 and detained for three months without any official charges filed against him. He has received many awards which include Skowhegan medal in 2011 and Chinese Contemporary award in 2008. 2. Ai Weiwei as a political activist used sculptures, photography films, architecture and social political in criticizing the Chinese government on human rights and democracy.

His interests are based on the government oppressing its citizens and corruption as seen in the Sichuan Schools corruption scandal (Ai, 2011). 3. Ai Weiwei reconstructed sculpture on Circle of Animals, Zodiac which was made using bronze material and its outdoor exhibition started in 2010 in Brazil. He made twelve animal heads of pentagonal faces and 20 hexagonal faces each weighing 800 pounds which he used as a political setting in the Chinese nationalists. 4. More images are available at http://www.

zodiacheads.com/photo_gallery.html 5. Through Ai Weiwei reconstruction of the traditional Zodiac heads, he brought light to the repatriation and making the reconstructed ones look original and terming the others fake. This shows that he tried to show effect of change by making the zodiac heads look better as compared to those made in the 18th century. Through his work he is trying to politicize it by opposing to the government’s leadership (Buskirk, 2005). 6. From this kind of art, Ai Weiwei main subject or objective was to induce change.

He is known as an activist opposing the Chinese Government leadership. Through this art he is trying to pass the message of transformation to China from the past acts by the government and trying to a better and clean government thus implying change. By using the old Zodiac heads in reconstruction he termed the old ones as fake and produced new zodiac using the same traditional zodiac heads to instill transformation. 7. The art sculpture clearly outlines the current and past situation in China as it is composed of corruption and poor leadership skills neglecting citizen’s interest. 8. The use of the old zodiac heads and reconstructing them demonstrates the citizen’s interest in adopting change.

Ai Weiwei represents the Chinese citizens and shows his solidarity to the struggle for freedom of dissent and expression (Ai Weiwei, 2012). References Ai, W., & Kunsthaus Bregenz. (2011). Ai Weiwei: Art / architecture. Bregenz: Kunsthaus. Ai Weiwei (2012). According to what? München: Prestel Verlag. Buskirk, M. (2005). The contingent object of contemporary art. Cambridge, Mass: MIT. struggle for freedom of expression and dissent.