Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei is now out of custody and on bail. But so far, the artist hasn’t talked to the media about his 81 days in detention. This is a condition of his bail. Ai was once an avid Twitter user. Now he’s reportedly banned
Monday, June 27, 2011
Does Islam Stand Against Science?
 |
Bridgeman-Giraudon, Art Resource Water-pump system, Seljuk dynasty, 1206. A group of Muslim scholars says there is no inherent conflict between Islam and science. |
By Steve Paulson
Sunday, June 26, 2011
China Releases Dissident Hu Jia From Jail
More good news for Chinese "dissidents" this week:
China Releases Dissident Hu Jia From Jail
China Releases Dissident Hu Jia From JailMr. Hu, a leading advocate for AIDS patients and the downtrodden, was considered a potential Nobel winner when he was detained in 2007.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Ai Weiwei associates 'also freed'
Ai Weiwei associates 'also freed'BBC News
Four people detained with Ai Weiwei - the artist and activist held by Chinese authorities for nearly three months - are also now free, sources close to Mr Ai have told the BBC.
Ai Weiwei: New York Photographs 1983-1993
asiasociety.org
Asia Society Museum presents an exhibition of 227 photographs taken by famed Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, capturing the history, culture, and atmosphere of 1980s New York from his unique perspective.
The exhibition marks the first time Ai Weiwei's New York Photographs series is being shown outside of China.
The exhibition marks the first time Ai Weiwei's New York Photographs series is being shown outside of China.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Mary Louise Schumacher on Ai Weiwei's release
Some days are better than others. Today was one of those days. Artist and activist Ai Weiwei was released by Chinese authorities on bail Wednesday. The news circled the globe quickly, as did news that he was home, with family and seemingly well. Ai’s detention sparked condemnation from political leaders around the world, and international protests that reached all the way to the Milwaukee Art Museum...
Censorship of Iranian artist in Milwaukee?
Fahimeh Vahdat climbed the 8-foot ladder to untack the ceiling-to-floor artwork that she had up at the Intercontinental Milwaukee's M Gallery on a recent afternoon.
Ai Weiwei's cousin 'to be released'
Some of Ai Weiwei's associates maybe released soon but others are still missing... also, another good argument that public pressure did work:
"This outcome makes clear that great international public pressure plus significant domestic and personal guanxi [connections] can be a potent combination even in the case of someone who went further than anyone before him in openly thumbing his nose (and other body parts) at the Communist regime. Undoubtedly, Ai's star talent, his family history and global support from the artistic community helped a lot." -Professor Jerome Cohen, a leading expert on Chinese criminal law
"This outcome makes clear that great international public pressure plus significant domestic and personal guanxi [connections] can be a potent combination even in the case of someone who went further than anyone before him in openly thumbing his nose (and other body parts) at the Communist regime. Undoubtedly, Ai's star talent, his family history and global support from the artistic community helped a lot." -Professor Jerome Cohen, a leading expert on Chinese criminal law
Driver Zhang Jinsong among several associates who disappeared with freed Chinese artist...
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Ai Weiwei's release shows power of public pressure
, of the Telegraph.co.uk, makes a pretty convincing argument on how public pressure did have an impact on Ai Weiwei's release:
This case is not over yet, but Ai's release is, for my money, a reminder that when intense international public pressure is brought to bear on China, it can have a positive effect. “Without the wave of international support for Ai, and the popular ...
Telegraph.co.uk (blog) - -
This case is not over yet, but Ai's release is, for my money, a reminder that when intense international public pressure is brought to bear on China, it can have a positive effect. “Without the wave of international support for Ai, and the popular ...
Day 80: Leeway and possibility - Art City
Even though I just heard the news that Ai Weiwei is out (we will have to wait for more details but Human Rights Watch says, "His detention was political and his release is political. It is the result of a huge domestic and international outcry that forced the government to this resolution … I think Beijing realised how damaging it was to hold China's most famous artist in detention,"), I am still sharing Mary-Louise Schumacher wonderful posts
The detention of Ai Weiwei, China's most outspoken and famous living artist, cannot be separated from the story of his father, the renowned poet Ai Qing, who also criticized the Communist regime.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Summer solstice commemorated with Google doodle by Takashi Murakami
Japanese artist's cartoon The First Day of Summer celebrates the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere
Day 79: I refuse to become one of the casualties - Art City
On March 24, 2009, Ai Weiwei answered questions from the general public in an online Q&A about his citizen investigation, a gathering of information about the thousands of children who died in poorly constructed schools during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. One of the questions was this: Will you...
Monday, June 20, 2011
Day 78: If everyone told the truth - Art City
On March 24, 2009, Ai Weiwei answered questions from the general public in an online Q&A about his citizen investigation, a gathering of information about the children who died in poorly constructed schools during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. One of the questions was this: Mr. Ai, what do you think...
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Day 77: I posted every day - Art City
On May 28, 2009, Ai Weiwei's blog was obliterated from the Internet in China. In March of this year, MIT Press published an English translation of the blog and other writings. A few weeks later, Ai was detained by Chinese authorities, presumably for being his ongoing, high-profile critiques of the g
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Day 76: Yesterday I Cut My Hair - Art City
A few weeks ago, local artist and art agitator Mike Brenner shaved his head to look like that of detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. What follows is Ai's blog post the day he got that odd do, with two tufts of hair on either side of his head.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Day 75: The smart spectators - Art City
Yesterday, internationally known sculptor Anish Kapoor cancelled plans to exhibit his sculptures at the National Museum of China in Beijing in protest against the continuing detention of Ai Weiwei, according to news reports. He was to be part the "UK Now" festival next year designed to build cultura
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Day 74: I'm Ready - Art City
We are publishing an excerpt from Ai Weiwei's blog, obliterated from the Internet in China, daily during Milwaukee's "Summer of China." The blog and other writings were translated into English and published by MIT press.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Day 73: N Town - Art City
Five years ago, Milwaukee became a sister city with Ningbo, one of China's most ancient cities, located on the East China Sea. A pair of carved stone lions were given to Milwaukee as a gift from Ningbo in 2008. If you haven't seen them, they stand at the entrance to the Zeidler Municipal Building.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Who's Afraid of Ai Weiwei? - Doha, Qatar
I got permission to put this "Who's Afraid of Ai Weiwei?" poster up in this little shop:
Day 72: Ai Weiwei and the thousands of children who died during the Sichuan earthquake
Mary Louise Schumacher's
Day 72: Citizen Investigation - Art CityGleaming and expressive structures trembled in Beijing and Shanghai, hundreds of miles away, on the day that a deadly earthquake struck China's Sichuan province.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Mary-Louise Schumacher's Art City publishing excerpts of Ai Weiwei's blog
Great idea Mary-Louise SchumacherArt City
Day 71: The Longest Road - Art City
www.jsonline.com
This weekend, we celebrated the opening of "The Emperor's Private Paradise," an unprecedented exhibit organized in cooperation with China at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
more Mary-Louise Schumacher on Ai Weiwei and MAM's "Summer of China"
www.jsonline.com
Today marks the start of the “Summer of China,” so declared by our mayor, and the opening of the unprecedented exhibit “The Emperor’s Private Paradise” at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
www.jsonline.com
For the very first time, China’s Palace Museum had authorized a major exhibition of art objects from the Forbidden City to travel to the United States, but officials there would be particular about who they’d trust their treasures to.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Lee Ann Garrison on Milwaukee Art Museum's "Summer of China"
A vast China show at the Milwaukee Art Museum | ThirdCoast Digest
thirdcoastdigest.com
A once-in-a-lifetime convergence of Chinese art from the Forbidden City and beyond.
Mary-Louise Schumacher on the Milwaukee Art Museum's "Summer of China"
Review: 'The Emperor's Private Paradise' at the Milwaukee Art Museum - Art CityThe Qianlong emperor, aside from being the longest ruling emperor in China’s history, was also the most painted. He was famously image conscious with fleets of artists who were his era’s equivalent of handlers and spin doctors. He commissioned paintings of himself mounted on a horse...
Eddee Daniel on MAM's "Summer of China"
artswithoutborders-eddee.blogs
That this extraordinary collection even exists seems something of a miracle and I can't help wondering how it survived untouched in the heart of Beijing throughout the so-called Cultural Revolution and other upheavals of the last century.
protesters at Milwaukee Art Museum's "Summer of China"
At least the Milwaukee Art Museum had a few protesters, but so few that it seems a little sad...
China Exhibitions At Milwaukee Art Museum Spark Controversy -- from WISN
China Exhibitions At Milwaukee Art Museum Spark Controversy -- from WISN www.wisn.com
MILWAUKEE -- A group of demonstrators wants the Milwaukee Art Museum to take a stand against alleged artistic suppression in China in light of the museum's new exhibitions of Chinese art. Friday, June 10, 2011.
Artists to hold 'sing in' in solidarity with detained Ai Weiwei
Artists to hold 'sing in' in solidarity with detained Ai Weiwei today - Art Citywww.jsonline.com
Local artist Peggy Hong has invited a few hundred local artists to "sing for solidarity" with detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei today at the Milwwaukee Art Museum.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Going Bald For Ai Weiwei
Going Bald For Ai Weiwei: A Righteous Head-Shaving Performance Sharpens Debate Over Milwaukee Museum
www.artinfo.comMike Brenner's action provoked the (ineffectual) intervention of museum guards, and has sparked a local furor.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
The strange existence of anti-matter...
 |
| Taoism seems to me to come closest to contemporary physics with its yin and yang symbolism, e.g., "For cosmologists studying the origin of the Universe it was pretty clear that equal amounts of matter and anti-matter must have spewed out from the fireball at the beginning of creation." Anti-Matter Trapped For 16 Minutes) |
The strange existence of anti-matter and its radical imbalance as a cosmic constituent is a fundamental mystery that has persisted for eight decades. We may finally be poised to understand not only the universe that is but also the universe that might have been.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Yemeni leader out...
I hope this is the start of some good news for Yemen! It seems like such a beautiful place:Citing Medical Needs, Yemeni Leader Goes to Saudi Arabia
By ROBERT F. WORTH
President Ali Abdullah Saleh left for treatment a day after being wounded in an attack, Saudi officials said. News reports point to the vice president as Yemen's acting leader.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
1000 activists murdered in Amazon...
 |
| The bodies of José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva, a forest conservationist, and his wife, Maria, were buried in Marabá, Brazil, last week. |
More than 1,000 environmental activists, religious workers, organizers and rural workers have been murdered in the Amazon in the last 20 years, but successful prosecutions of those who order the killings are virtually nonexistent, according to watchdog groups.
China paranoid of any mention Ai Weiwei...
www.nytimes.comWang Jun had been detained over an arts festival’s cryptic reference to Ai Weiwei, the artist, architect and social
China 22 years later...
 |
| artwork I created in China in the summer of 2009 |
China's 22nd anniversary of Tiananmen Square | Video | Reuters.com
Twenty-two years after China's infamous Tiananmen Square crackdown, not much progress on political dissidents.Global Call to Raise Awareness of Tienanmen... -Tibet Post International
Hong Kong Residents to Hold Vigil Marking Tiananmen... - Bloomberg
Tiananmen Square Anniversary: 22 Years Later - Huffington Post
Tiananmen legacy: Crush any hint of dissent - Vancouver Sunmy posts on the Tiananmen Square Massacre over the last two years:
21 years ago today... June 4, 1989
almost 20 years since June 4th, 1989...
GM bankrupt/US Treasury Secretary in China...
the Chinese Century?
Lo Ch'ing's poem for June 4...
meeting a former soldier that fired shoots in Tiananmen...
remembering Tiananmen...
installed guerrilla style on the streets of Beijing...
remembering "Tank Man"...
previously unseen photos of Tiananmen Square Massacre...
Friday, June 3, 2011
Artists in China and Hong Kong protest Ai Weiwei's detention
 |
| Image from Stephen Somers |
China Shuts Down Art Show That Mentioned Ai Weiwei
A reference to the jailed artist Ai Weiwei was apparently too much for the authorities.
Below is my own call for a protest to Ai Weiwei's detention and Milwaukee's "Summer of China":
Any interest in a counter exhibit/lecture series to Milwaukee's 'Summer of China'
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
video: Milwaukee artist sticking it to the Chinese government!
Watch Mike Brenner stick it to the Chinese government by shaving off his hair in front of the art mu
www.avclub.comThe local rabble-rouser shows his solidarity with imprisoned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.
Milwaukee bad boy artist shaves head for Ai Weiwei
www.jsonline.com
Local artist and art agitator Mike Brenner stood in front of the Milwaukee Art Museum and shaved his head to look like that of detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei as the signature wings of the Calatrava addition rose behind him this morning.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)