News From Nowhere Radical & Community Bookshop

• home
• browse books
• book details:

Ai Weiwei's Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006-2009

by Ai Weiwei, translated by Lee Ambrozy - £30.00  MIT Press Ltd (2011)
paperback    ISBN 13: 9780262015219 | ISBN 10: 0262015218

In 2006, even though he could barely type, China's most famous artist started blogging. For more than three years, Ai Weiwei turned out a steady stream of scathing social commentary, criticism of government policy, thoughts on art and architecture, and autobiographical writings. He wrote about the Sichuan earthquake (and posted a list of the schoolchildren who died because of the government’s "tofu-dregs engineering"), reminisced about Andy Warhol and the East Village art scene, described the irony of being investigated for "fraud" by the Ministry of Public Security, made a modest proposal for tax collection. Then, on June 1, 2009, Chinese authorities shut down the blog. This book offers a collection of Ai's online writings translated into English--the most complete, public documentation of the original Chinese blog available in any language.
 
The New York Times has called Ai "a figure of Warholian celebrity." He is a leading figure on the international art scene, a regular in museums and biennials, but in China he is a manifold and controversial presence: artist, architect, curator, social critic, justice-seeker. He was a consultant on the design of the famous "Bird’s Nest" stadium but called for an Olympic boycott; he received a Chinese Contemporary Art "lifetime achievement award" in 2008 but was beaten by the police in connection with his "citizen investigation" of earthquake casualties in 2009. Ai Weiwei's Blog documents Ai's passion, his genius, his hubris, his righteous anger, and his vision for China.
 
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957), artist, architect, activist, and outspoken social critic, is one of the most famous and controversial figures in China today. His work has been exhibited in Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States, in venues ranging from the Venice Biennale to the Guangzhou Triennial.

(Price & availability last checked: March 2019)

Order by email

×

Ai Weiwei's Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006-2009 - by Ai Weiwei, translated by Lee Ambrozy

Please fill in the order form, & we will reply as soon as we can to confirm your order & tell you how long it will take. Choose between collection from our bookshop or mail-order, for which we charge postage at cost, at current Royal Mail rates

Select type of order: Collect & pay in the shop - I live in or can visit Liverpool Mail-order - send me a card payment link Mail-order - I will pay another way & give details in the notes section

Your name:

Please fill out this field.

Your email address

Please check carefully that you have entered your email correctly

Please fill out this field.

Your phone number (required for order as back-up contact method):

Please check carefully that you have entered your phone number correctly.

Please fill out this field.

Notes (optional - for additional message or information about your order):

Close

Enquire about this book

×

Ai Weiwei's Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, 2006-2009

by Ai Weiwei, translated by Lee Ambrozy

Your name:

Please fill out this field.

Your email address

Please check carefully that you have entered your email correctly

Please fill out this field.

Your phone number (optional):

Your message:

Please fill out this field.

(optional) If you are interested in ordering this book, would your order be for collection or mail-order? Select type of order : Collect from the shop - I live in or can visit Liverpool Mail-order - send by post

Close

In booklists: Art and Artists - Asia, Political Art, Photography and Crafts, Activism & Resistance, China,
In categories: World - Asia, Arts & Creativity, Politics & Philosophy, Changing the World, Anti-Capitalism & Global Inequality,