All that Ai Weiwei’s website’s biography page says about him is that he is an artist born in 1957 who now resides in Beijing. This is quite an understatement for such a potent artist.

I saw this piece that he did and thought it was so cool; it’s a triptych of him dropping a Han Dynasty Urn. The middle panel is haunting to me – it’s as if someone is holding the urn directly above the ground, a ghost or invisible being. Or maybe that’s what my mind is hoping; imagining as a mechanism to combat the fact that he truly did destroy a Han Dynasty Urn in the creation of this piece. This kid in one of my classes was explaining that Han Dynasty Urns are historically salient in the fact that the Han Dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history.

He also has a running project within these sunflower seeds. They are all created by hand and out of porcelain; the seed is representative of the people of China, since there are many but they always face towards the sun, as if looking towards a brighter future, a brighter day.

I especially enjoy the comedic nature of his Coca Cola Urns.

I feel like it creates an important dialogue about the influence of Western Culture on, quite frankly, everything, and the consumerism that follows (or goes hand-in-hand) with that influence.

In terms of Ai Weiwei’s NYC installations, I think that the pushback from the Washington Square Park piece is selfish and whitewashed. Some man on the board committee for the park claims that the sculpture “politicized” the arch, though the arch was erected in political likeness in the first place. It’s representative of George Washington’s inauguration; one of this country’s founding fathers, therefore one of the men who is responsible for the way it (the country) is now. I know that’s a cynical outlook on the entire thing, but I tried to put what I was saying in the simplest terms.

I think Ai Weiwei is an amazing artist and activist and I can’t wait to see what ways he furthers his ideas and how they are conceptualized.