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M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong. By donation, © Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei 艾未未
New York 1983–1993 紐約1983–1993
1983–1993
This series of black-and-white photographs documents Ai Weiwei’s experience of New York in the 1980s and 1990s. The photographs feature self-portraits of the artist, daily activities, and other artists and writers who left China for the West in the 1980s. Several photographs depict artistic influences, including works by Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol, and a wire hanger twisted into a profile of Duchamp. Photographs that document protests against gentrification, the AIDS crisis, and other social issues in the late 1980s reveal Ai’s growing political consciousness, which later manifested through his online social activism and art projects that draw attention to humanitarian crises. During his time in New York, Ai took over ten thousand photographs, and he selected 227 to form this series. According to him, the photographs were taken without consideration for aesthetics, composition, or lighting, and were simply a way of being aware. In the 2000s, Ai continued to capture the mood and conditions of his environment in video and photography works, recording the experience of urban spaces in Beijing.
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