Art as a Way of Life: A Chat with Renowned Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei

  Ai Weiwei

When he was just one year old, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and his family were sent to a shelter camp in Beidahuang, Heilongjiang, but even at that young age, creativity was in his blood. After all, his father was the famous Chinese poet Ai Qing.

Later, in 1961, the whole family was completely exiled to Shihezi, Xinjiang, where they lived for 16 years until, in 1976, they returned to Beijing. In 1978 Ai Weiwei studied animation at the Beijing Film Academy and became known as one of the founders of the early Chinese avant-garde art group called the “Stars”. The group disbanded in 1983.

At the time, Ai Weiwei was already living in the US, mostly in New York City. He lived in the States from 1981 to 1993 and studied briefly at the Parsons School of Design. He also attended the Art Students League of New York from 1983 to 1986, where he studied alongside such luminaries as Bruce Dorfman, Knox Martin and Richard Pousette-Dart. After that, Ai Weiwei famously dropped out of formal education and made a living as a street artist, perhaps under the influence of his friend, 1960s beatnik poet Allen Ginsberg.

Forever, 2013

Ai Weiwei solo exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London

In 1993, Ai Weiwei finally returned to Beijing because his father fell ill, but it didn’t slow him down: he established the experimental artists’ cooperative Beijing East Village and co-published books about the new generation of artists together with Chinese curator Feng Boyi.

These tomes included Black Cover Book in 1994, White Cover Book in 1995 and Gray Cover Book in 1997. In 1999, he moved back to Caochangdi in the northeast of Beijing, built a studio and embarked upon his first architecture project with his firm named FAKE design. He also married artist Lu Qing and the couple has a son. 

Read the full article about the talented Ai Weiwei in Indonesia Tatler Homes September 2016 issue.

(Text by Ria Iskandar)