Tag Archives: Ai Wei Wei

Empty subjects, empty worlds

The choice of Ai Weiwei to quote in the previous post may seem odd, because there are certainly other sources for the same ideas, perhaps more eloquent, or more purely involved in aesthetics. But I like to hear Ai say … Continue reading

Posted in Abstraction and Society, Ethics of Abstraction, Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Inwardness projected

As I discussed in the posts about R.H.Quaytman, inside and outside are arbitrary distinctions, and it is this fact which is responsible for the skepticism about the self exhibited by the more sophisticated members of the art world. Perhaps art … Continue reading

Posted in Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Jack Vance

From Julian Barbour and the block universe to minimalism to the negative social sublime of Smithson and Ai Weiwei, I’ve been wondering about a temporal perspective that denies change, that posits a kind of steady state. Obviously these sources are … Continue reading

Posted in Abstraction and Society, Conceptualism and Painting, Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Time and Ai Weiwei

I’ve just finished writing a review for the magazine Yishu. It’s a comparison between two recently published books, Ai Weiwei’s blog posts and Gao Minglu’s historical study of the Chinese avant-garde, Total Modernity. I love Ai’s whole attitude. He is … Continue reading

Posted in Abstraction and Society, Current Affairs, Ethics of Abstraction, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

As Ai Wei Wei sees it

Self-reflection is the process of modernism, although we usually give it the more portentous label of self-criticism. Self-reflection is also how the individual’s subjectivity or inwardness grows, how they find their own limits and possibilities. On the social scale self-reflection … Continue reading

Posted in Abstraction and Society, Current Affairs, Ethics of Abstraction, Principles of Abstraction, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Global politics of modernism

I need to do more research on Ai Wei Wei, including trying to find some of his writings, but I think the important thing is his straightforward equation of self-reflection, both in art and in the subject, with democratic nation … Continue reading

Posted in Abstraction and Society, Current Affairs, Ethics of Abstraction | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Ai Wei Wei and the modernist interior

I’m not especially interested in Ai Wei Wei’s work, I find it to be more or less typical contemporary global conceptualism, but I think that his understanding of modern art is brilliant and very important for China and the rest … Continue reading

Posted in Ethics of Abstraction, Principles of Abstraction | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment