Provacateur artist Ai WeiWei is the subject of the Saturday profile in today’s New York
Times. You have read to the end to get to the money paragraph:
Lately, there are indeed signs that the government is reaching its limit. His blogs on Chinese Web sites, about issues political and otherwise, have been shut down. Someone has installed two video cameras outside his studio. The police are said to be scrutinizing his finances, an ominous development in a state where other political critics have been prosecuted for what appear to be concocted fiscal misdeeds.
The Times interview doesn’t add much to the body of knowledge about Ai and his positions. He’s been outspoken, and is readily available to the press, in person, on the phone and in email interviews. And the art press has paid attention. But today’s story may raise the temperature in China, which in the past, at least, has cared about what the Times says (and other Western media, too).
China has on occasion blocked access to the paper’s website, and I’d be curious to know if today’s article is available there.
Ai, one of whose “Bowl of Pearls” is above, is given the last word:
I came to art because I wanted to escape the other regulations of the society. The whole society is so political. But the irony is that my art becomes more and more political.
Here’s the link.