Everything is Art. Everything is Politics: Ai Weiwei

In the art world, Ai Weiwei has achieved a cult status. One can see his work and get awed by it. He is such a star that Princeton University press published a book of his quotes as Weiwei-isms.

I do not know any other artists who has this kind of ism named after him. Do we know of Picasso-isms…or (Jeff) Koon-isms….or may be (Anish) Kapoor-isms..But then Ai Weiwei is Ai Weiwei.

We recently got a chance to listen to him and meet him for few minutes as he was sitting outside the Kemper Museum in St Louis where his show Bare Life opened recently.

As artists it was our fan moment. We stood in a queue to meet him and get a selfie. Mee Jey was not satisfied with the selfie. she bought the small book Weiwei-isms and got it autographed.

I read the book and loved the last quote on the back of the book- “Everything is Art. Everything is Politics.”

This got stuck to my mind and then I tried to see the whole act of Ai Weiwei and tried to analyse it.

What  happened was (and we talked about this with few people who also got a selfie with Weiwie) everyone stood in a queue to meet Ai Weiwei and got a photograph clicked.

The selfie was always clicked by Weiwei himself so the typical meeting was something like this.

• He (Weiwei) is sitting on a bench in a way that if you are standing then both of them can come in frame.
• The person goes. Shake hands with him, then Weiwei took the camera from the hands of the person.
• Weiwei holds the camera in horizontal position and clicks a photo…may be two. Gives back the camera.
• The person leaves.
• Sometimes some people try to strike a conversation to which Weiwei replies in short answers like- Yes, No, May be, Thank you. I am grateful..sometimes to a fellow artists he makes a short conversation or with a Chinese may be a little long.

So here is my point

If everything is art then Weiwei clicking a picture with a stranger (art lover) is an act of ART. Right? And if Everything is politics then what is the politics of these pictures?

In my view Weiwei holding the camera always is itself an act of an artist. By clicking the selfie himself Weiwei takes control of the photograph (frame, light, expression of himself). With a small gesture ( of taking the camera of any stranger/art lover) he becomes the artist of that picture.

Isn’t that his politics of taking control of the stranger/art lover, for a moment of his camera, his whole being in that frame of the selfie.

Secondly in all these pictures Weiwei will always be seen in the left of the frame.

Imagine at least 100 people got this selfie and most of them have posted in on the Internet (Insta, FB, Telegram, Twitter etc) and what you see the constant is Ai Weiwie on the left of all these selfies.

You remember Weiwei from this picture not your friend or stranger in that picture.

Isn’t this intriguing? Weiwei may or may not have thought about it this way but he says it perfectly- Everything is art Everything is Politics.

Other perspective

It should not be said that in such pictures only the Artist (in this case Ai Weiwei) has a politics. Any person who is getting a selfie with him also has some kind of politics.

For example in this picture where Mee Jey is seen in the right with Weiwei. It is art? Off course it is art. A selfie with a great artist becomes art itself.

With the rejoinder that Mee Jey had no idea that she will find Weiwei and she will be able to get a selfie.

What might be her Politics….because when everything is art and everything is politics and as we have discussed the possible politics of Weiwei in this picture there must be some politics of Mee Jey is bound to be there whether or not she is aware of it.

For a young artist getting a selfie with a great artist is itself an inspiration. So here comes the politics of inspiration. We always look for leaders to inspire us.

Secondly a kind of access is also portrayed in this picture.

If we only see the picture then we may or may not have an idea how close Mee Jey is with Weiwei?

No one knows how many minutes they spent together. What did they talk about? Did they talk about Art, politics or a collaboration or they didn’t talk about anything else.

Was it just a selfie moment?

We will never know unless and until Mee Jey explains it but the picture is there. People will keep guessing about it. That might be the politics of Mee Jey in this picture.

As in literature it is said that ‘if you closely read the TEXT it will reveal it to you’.

I have just tried to read the TEXT by Ai Weiwei and tried to analyse a simple act of creating a selfie with and by Weiwei.

The book of Ai Weiwei-isms is a thought provoking collection of his quotes ( selected from his blogs, interviews and write ups).

It gives insights not only about his mind but also opens up new ways to see the world.

Weiwei will always be known as the activist artist but for me he is someone who has changed the language of artistic communication and as he says in the book ” The Language of communication will always be renewed.”

What do you think of the write-up. Comment below.