5.03.2011

Ai Weiwei Update: 05.03.11



• One month ago today, artist Ai Weiwei was taken into police custody. No formal charges have been filed, his family reportedly has not had contact with him, and his whereabouts remain unknown.

• In Hong Kong, someone dubbed "Cpak Ming" is projecting "flash graffiti" images of Ai's face on buildings around town, including the barracks of the People's Liberation Army, and then posting photos on Facebook. The likeness is the same as the one created by "Chin Tangerine," who's been tracked by the police for stenciling the image on HK sidewalks.

• Ai's installation of millions of sunflower seeds in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall is scheduled to come down this week, but The Australian reports that 10 million of the porcelain seeds will be retained in a
"1.5m-high conical sculpture that willbe a symbol of solidarity with the artist."

• Charlotte Eaton, a 32-year old London woman, protested Ai's detention yesterday with a nude walk across the bed of sunflower seeds. "I didn't want to be removed by security so didn't stay long. I heard someone shout 'bravo', which was very nice," she said. "No action was taken against me by security guards, and a member of the Tate's press smiled at me as I winked at her and left."

• Yesterday's unveiling of Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads in Central Park was postponed by Mayor Bloomberg's office, upstaged by the killing of Osama bin Laden. Despite the delay, activists rallied around the works yesterday to show support for the artist.

• Check out ArtInfo.com's multimedia timeline of Ai's life.

• In another nod to Ai's 2007 work Fairytale: 1001 Qing Dynasty Wooden Chairs -- which sparked global 1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei protests on April 17 -- pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong commemorated the first month of Ai's captivity by using chairs to form the Chinese character for "prison" in Victoria Park.

• While western governments have condemned Ai's detention without charge, Taiwan's president, Ma Ying-jeou, has not, a fact activists there pointed out yesterday at a rally where they urged Ma to take a stand.

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