Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei is unafraid to speak truth to power. He’s one of the most famous living artists today – a testament to the breadth and vision of his practice. Effortlessly, he moves between different media, from sculpture and architecture to performance and documentary film. His work is often monumental in scale and is driven by a hunger for truth and justice. In 2008, for example, Ai spent many months collecting the names of over 5000 children who lost their lives in the Sichuan earthquake. This unflinching dedication to human rights saw him detained by the Chinese government for 81 days in 2009, accused of ‘subverting the state.’

Although Ai’s work isn’t always autobiographical, his life has profoundly shaped his art. Growing up in 1960s and 70s China during the Cultural Revolution, his father was an influential poet. This saw the two of them forcibly moved to the Gurbantünggüt Desert in northwestern China. “The whirlpool that swallowed up my father upended my life too, leaving a mark on me that I carry till this day.” These shadows of history lurk throughout Ai’s oeuvre. They have also moulded the way that he thinks about humanity more broadly. For Ai, history is life.