The Photography of Ai Weiwei at Kunsthal Rotterdam

photo: Marco De Swart - Kunsthal Rotterdam, Ai Weiwei. In Search of Humanity

Kunsthal Rotterdam is currently presenting an extensive exhibition devoted to Ai Weiwei, a prominent contemporary artist and human rights advocate who draws on personal experience to expose dictatorial regimes. Titled In Search of Humanity, it is the most comprehensive retrospective of his work to date.

The exhibition includes major works from every phase of his forty-year creative career. Accompanying texts offer insight into the distinctive expression of his artistic practice. To communicate his particular message to the world, he uses paintings, cultural readymades, LEGO works, sculptures, installations, photography, and video art.

The artworks depict “a search for humanity and a better world, the Chinese government’s methods of intimidation, the call for freedom, wars, and global refugee crises,” and the artist hopes that we will all continue to take action when freedom of expression and human rights are threatened.

Although Ai is regarded as an activist, he does not see himself that way at all. “Art is everything,” he says in the interview preceding the exhibition, describing art as an expression of the reality around you. An artist living in a place with little oppression will portray a different reality from one who lives where oppression is prevalent. He also feels the word ‘activist’ is inappropriate because it would imply that you are not working professionally as an artist. Art is connected to reality, philosophy, and morality and can never be separated from them. For him, his artworks are an expression of his personality, but they can also be used as a means of actively taking a stand.

Photography

His photography is politically and socially engaged, offering a critical view of contemporary society in China and around the world. He uses his work to draw attention to issues such as human rights, freedom of expression, and the government’s influence on the individual.

Ai Weiwei’s photography is characterized by the way he transforms simple, everyday objects and situations into powerful political statements. His photographs are often direct and uncomplicated, yet carry profound meaning. In the exhibition, these works—like all of Ai Weiwei’s other artistic expressions—are presented in chronological order.

Photographs from New York and Beijing

Between 1983 and 1993, Ai Weiwei lives in New York, where he documents his experiences and encounters with friends such as Allen Ginsberg and Robert Frank. He also has himself photographed while exploring the city. He fills his visual diary with casual snapshots.

Over time, the character of the photographs changes: they become less personal. Through his camera lens, he observes events in his immediate surroundings. In the summer of 1988, he records the East Village as a battleground for political, social, ethical, and sexual issues and civil disobedience.

Over time, the character of the photographs changes: they become less personal...

Ai joins the activists, demonstrating that every individual has the ability to change things for the better. In 1993, he returns to Beijing. There, as a stranger in his own country, he documents his personal surroundings, including his dying father.

Tiananmen Square

On June 4, 1989, the student protests and the ensuing massacre took place in Tiananmen Square, killing three thousand people. Ai visits the square every year on this day in June in response to the event. The square is home to the Gate of Heavenly Peace. Above this entrance to the Forbidden City hangs a portrait of Mao Zedong, whose mausoleum is also located in the square.

In 1994, Ai visits the square with artist Lu Qing, photographing her with both the gate and Mao’s portrait in the background. Her lifted skirt, which appears to be a playful and humorous gesture, is in fact an act of protest against rigid government policy.

Study of Perspective

One of his best-known photographic series is Study of Perspective, in which he shows photographs of his outstretched arm raising the middle finger toward various famous sites and symbols of power around the world, such as Tiananmen Square, the White House, and the Eiffel Tower. The series is often interpreted as an expression of resistance to authority and oppression.

With the title Study of Perspective, Ai refers to an art term from spatial studies. Instead of estimating distance with his thumb, he uses his middle finger, expressing his personal view of changing the future.

However, he never directs this gesture of his arm and finger at individuals, because he believes every individual has the ability to change things for the better. Ai wants to encourage us to reflect on our own position in relation to authority and to stand up for the right to self-determination and freedom of expression.

In Detention

In 2009, Ai is arrested for the first time and thereby prevented from testifying on behalf of activist Tan Zuoren, who investigated construction defects in school buildings that collapsed during the major Sichuan earthquake in 2008 and is accused of inciting the subversion of the government.

They search Ai’s hotel room and beat him so severely that he suffers serious head injuries. As he is taken down in the elevator, he still manages to use his cell phone to take a mirror selfie of the scene and discreetly post it online. The photograph, which Ai later recreates in LEGO (Illumination), goes viral and highlights the growing importance of smartphones and social media in political activism.

After Liu Xiaobo, a critic of the Chinese system, receives the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, the Chinese Communist Party decides to crack down on dissidents, and lawyers, activists, and writers are imprisoned or silenced.

Ai’s studio is destroyed by government authorities under the pretext of ‘unauthorized use.’ In 2011, the secret police again detain him indefinitely at an unknown location, without formal charges or conviction. By the time he is released on bail, he has spent 81 days in a small room where he is constantly filmed and the light is always left on.

Afterward, he is placed under strict surveillance and prohibited from traveling. Ai continues to criticize the regime through his art and even manages to report on the conditions in which he was secretly detained. As a dissident, he advocates for political transparency and freedom of expression, both in China and beyond.

When the Chinese government returns Ai’s passport in 2015, he moves to Berlin. Based primarily in Europe from then on, he deepens his mission as an advocate for human rights and fundamental democratic values through his role as an artist and his clear positions on current issues. Photography has, in fact, disappeared from his many forms of artistic expression by this point—or at least ... it is not shown in the rest of the exhibition.

Ai Weiwei. In Search of Humanity
On view through March 3, 2024
Kunsthal Rotterdam