“There
are individuals who come along in certain
periods of time who advance the human spirit to
the next level.” - actor James Newcomb
Heroes are not only those who achieve
unprecedented success, but those who create
possibilities for others. “Breakthroughs”
according to Werner Erhard, “are created by
…people who will act to make possibility real.”
Such an individual is Ai Weiwei (pronounced “Ay
Way Way”) a Chinese artist and political
activist whom Time Magazine named as runner-up
for “2011 Person of The Year.” Directed by
Alison Klayman, the compelling documentary Ai
Weiwei: Never Sorry, winner of a Special Jury
Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival,
follows Ai Weiwei pursuing his sculpture,
architecture, curating, photography, film, and
other arts in a political system that does not
hesitate to use force, repression, and
censorship against those they see as threats to
the Communist government.
Ai Weiwei's father was Chinese poet Ai Qing who
was denounced and sent to a labor camp with his
wife, Gao Ying, an event that had strong
repercussions in Ai's life. Ai Weiwei lived in
New York from 1983 to 1993 where he studied and
worked as an artist. While in New York, he
created conceptual art by altering readymade
objects. He also compiled 10,000 photographs
that were shown in an exhibit at the Three
Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing and
became the subject of a 20-minute film “Who's
Afraid of Ai Weiwei” shown on PBS in 2008, a
work that was expanded to produce the current
documentary.
Using interviews with friends, family members,
fellow artists, and young followers, Klayman
describes Weiwei's involvement in the Sichuan
Earthquake Names Project which listed the names
of 5,000 student victims who lost their lives
because of shoddy construction of schools, his
criticism of the government's use of propaganda
to support the Beijing Olympics whose Bird's
Nest Stadium he helped to design, and his
provocative use of humor in his exhibit using
photographs showing his extended middle-finger
in front of Tiananmen Square. Weiwei says,
“There is no outdoor sport as graceful as
throwing stones at a dictatorship.”
The film also documents the artist's exhibitions
in Munich, especially a work called
“Remembering” which displayed 9,000 backpacks
spelling out the words "She lived happily on
this earth for 7 years," a reference to students
who were killed in the Sichuan earthquake.
Another exhibit shown at the Tate Gallery in
London consists of 100-million porcelain
hand-painted sunflower seeds made in China.
Though China claims that human rights have
improved in their country, Ai Weiwei's assault
by police thugs attempting to prevent him from
testifying at the trial of Tan Zuoren belies the
claim. Zuoren, an activist and recent Nobel
Peace Prize winner, was sentenced to 11 years in
prison for several articles that, according to
Weiwei, were reasonable and not at all
provocative.
One of the most important aspects of Weiwei's
activism is his use of social media, especially
Twitter (@aiww), an activity that he began in
earnest after his blog was taken down by the
authorities. This is demonstrated by his ability
to quickly organize resistance to the
government's proposed demolition of his
newly-built art studio in Shanghai which they
deemed “illegal.” Though the documentary breaks
no new ground as an art form and only skims the
surface of Ai's personal life, Ai Weiwei: Never
Sorry is a well-made and often inspiring film
about an artist who is willing to take enormous
risks for his own safety to expose human rights
abuses and which reaches a new level of
intensity when it is discovered that Weiwei has
disappeared, leading to world-wide protests and
an uncertain outcome.
