Ai Weiwei Experiences

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Ai Weiwei, has had an incomprehensibly tough life, living in exile for the first 16 years of his life on the Russian border, with a non-existent educational system in the surrounding area and harsh living conditions. He creates many pieces of art that convey and express the many experiences he’s had in his life. From being illegally arrested by the government to growing up in exile and being an illegal alien. Artwork created with such experiences and honest feelings can be highly moving and generally is interpreted in the way the artist wants you to view it. On the other hand, Salvador Dalí’s artworks are based more on his philosophies, occurrences happening around him rather than directly to him and the way his mind works, with all his paranoia …show more content…

On the 3rd of April 20011, Ai was arrested just before boarding his flight for Taipei, then for the following 81 he was illegally detained at a secret location, with handcuffs permanently on for the first 30 days and having 2 guards following and noting his each and every move. The only source of ventilation in the tiny box of a room was a small fan upon the wall. To show the world what atrocities occurs and to illustrate his abhorrent experience, from his release until 2013, he created 6 stunning replicas of his activities and experience of his detainment, all at half scale. The series was names S.A.C.R.E.D. a rather ironic name to such a barbaric breach of human rights and illegal activity. Each piece consisted of a large metal box, decorated with figures of himself and the guards in the middle of general life, from taking a shower to sleeping and from eating to using the toilet. The insides decorated to his exact memories of his cells décor, filled furniture wrapped up in plastic. Seeing this installation at his recent London exhibition at The Royal Academy of Arts was awe-inspiring indeed. Recreating his horrible experience in such detail put the audience right into his shoes and illustrates the amount of degradation Ai faced during his incarceration. It truly expresses how he felt during the intense and claustrophobic ordeal, designed by the Chinese

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