Week 3 – Learning to look at artworks
Article on
reading artworks
2) Ai Wei Wei
Dropping a Han dynasty urn 1995
This is a triptych of black and white photographs
human scale in size. They depict an Asian man wearing non descript clothes
standing in front of a wall before, during and after the process of dropping
what appears to be a jug or urn. The photographs are shot front on and the
man’s gaze is level in the photograph looking straight into the camera not at
the object as he drops it.
Through the use of black and white images and
therefore lack of colour Ai Weiwei has removed any sense of emotion and records
this performed act in an objective historical documentary trope aligning with
the emotionless gaze. This gaze meets that of the audience and challenges the
potential outrage that people may feel as we read in the didactic that it is
the artist himself performing the drop and that it is a Han dynasty urn from
206BC – 220 AD that is destroyed. In addition the fact that these are Gelatin
silver prints – which despite the implied value due to the word ‘silver’ - are
actually the most common/standard form of contemporary black and white printing
methods (Keller, E 2003 Basic Glossary of
Photographic Processes/ Terms) and this for me helps to bring into question
the idea of value.
The didactic explores how these artifacts were
treasured for their aesthetics as well as
their ‘unique cultural authority as evidence of one of
the greatest epoch’s in China’s long history’.
Therefore Ai Wei wei’s documentation of this destruction of this object
deemed highly valuable is a potent one and forcibly reminds us that this object
is valuable because it has been declared so by collectors and the art market.
Additionally Ai Wei Wei has subverted
this sense of culture and value as the object has now become part of a
contemporary work of art in the very system that confers these values therefore
completing the circle in a disruptive way and insightful way.
The use of photography aids this potency as we see the
moment of destruction frozen in time whereas the use of video or life
performance would have potentially undermined the power of that moment. In
addition the large scale size of the work places it firmly within the realm of
the gallery and there is a sense of resistance/defiance within the artist
perhaps also expressing resistance to political and cultural values of late
20th Century capitalist China as expressing a separation from its ancient
cultures.
Interestingly a Florida artist Maximo Carminero broke
one of Ai Wei Wei’s painted on han dynasty urns held at the Miami museum as a
protest against this museum only displaying works by international artists
(Chen, A 2014 Ai Wei wei not amused by
smashing of US 1 m vase) .
Chen, A 2014 Ai
Wei wei not amused by smashing of US 1 m vase, South China Morning Post
viewed 26 March 2014 http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1430515/ai-weiwei-not-amused-smashing-us1m-vase
Keller, E 2003 Basic
Glossary of Photographic Processes/ Terms viewed 26 th March 2014 http://www.afterimagegallery.com/photoglossary.htm
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