11-03-2025
The timing of this provocative retrospective at SAM is not a coincidence
The Brief
The first Ai Weiwei retrospective in the U.S. in over a decade is now on display at the Seattle Art Museum.
The show features 130 works from the 1980s to 2020s, and will run from March 12 to September 7.
SEATTLE - "You should expect that he's a disruptor," said Ping Foong about Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.
Foong is the Seattle Art Museum's Curator of Chinese Art and the curator of "Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei." She explained that it is the first Ai Weiwei retrospective in the U.S. in over a decade. It will run from March 12 to September 7.
We met Foong at the exhibit, surrounded by works depicting gold animal heads, marble couches and images made from Legos.
"Well, it's been very challenging to bring together so many objects," Foong said.
The show features 130 works from the 1980s to 2020s across three of SAM's locations.
"It is the largest (Weiwei) survey, retrospective, basically ever."
Foong suggests that visitors who are limited on time should approach the gargantuan show strategically.
"If your plan is to read every single one of my labels and watch all of the movies, well, I would say that it would take you a week."
Weiwei is known in the art world for thought-provoking work across different media, often touching on politics and pointing out injustices.
"One of Ai Weiwei's signature moves is to question why we value certain things like antiquities. So, he delights in smashing ancient pots, for instance," Foong said.
Foong is referencing Ai Weiwei's "Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn" in 1995. The performance was photographed and now the images of the artist breaking a 2,000-year-old urn hang on the walls of the downtown location of the Seattle Art Museum.
"This is a destruction which makes us think more closely about why is there some things that are allowed to be destroyed. For instance, older parts of the cities. You tear them down and build new buildings."
Ai Weiwei's work often focuses on human rights abuses, both in China and around the world.
When asked if the timing of the exhibition was accidental, given the current political climate in the U.S., Foong was quick to respond, "Absolutely intentional."
Local perspective
She added that while Weiwei had never been in Seattle before, it's an appropriate place to show his work.
"Both art and activism are part of the fabric of Seattle."
Ai Weiwei declined our request for an interview, but he answered questions from journalists during a press conference on Friday, March 7. Someone asked if he believed there were downsides to democratizing thought leadership online. He admitted that it was difficult for him to answer. His response seemingly referenced the current presidential administration.
"There's nothing really original. There's nothing really that could be characterized as individual opinion."
"Make America Great could be that opinion. It's such a propaganda, and it's quite broadly accepted."
Weiwei is known to oppose authority. He's been a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party. The artist was detained for 81 days in 2011 after online calls for a Middle Eastern-style revolution in China. At the time, the BBC reported that he was held in a secret police detention center in China.
"I think that his position is that you cannot say wrong things. You can only say things. That one has to have the ability for freedom of expression," said Foong.
The curator explains that she doesn't want to presume what message visitors should take away from the exhibition. However, she does believe that it's the right time and place to experience Weiwei's work.
"No matter what happens in our political environment, geopolitical environment throughout the world, we needed this exhibition to help us think and reflect upon our situation," said Foong "I hope that this show will galvanize people, will encourage them to act in whatever way they see fit."
The Source
Information in this story is from Seattle Art Museum's Curator of Chinese Art Ping Foong and FOX 13 Seattle reporting.
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