The words and ideas expressed on these pages belong to Ai Weiwei, yet this book came about thanks to many individuals and their dedication to Ai Weiwei’s vision.
We are first and foremost grateful to Ai Weiwei and his entire studio for their assistance with this publication and other projects. Special thanks to Jennifer Ng and Darryl Leung. Thanks as well to Max Logsdail, Chin-Chin Yap, and Nadine Stenke.
Our sincerest appreciation to everyone at Princeton University Press, including Michelle Komie, Terri O’Prey, Pamela Weidman, Lauren Lepow, Erin Suydam, Julia Haav, Kimberley Williams, and the entire PUP staff for their outstanding professionalism, support, and enthusiasm.
Special thanks to Fiona Graham for her excellent research that constitutes the foundation of this publication. Thanks to Taliesin Thomas for her coordination and management, and Zara Hoffman and Steven Rodríguez for their diligent assistance. Our special thanks as well to J. Richard Allen and to Andrew Cohen.
As always, I thank my wife, Abbey, and my children, Justin, Ethan, Ellie, and Jonah, for their openness and support of this serious and difficult subject. To my parents, my deepest gratitude and respect for leaving their home in search of freedom and a life beyond oppression.
Finally, I am immensely grateful to Ai Weiwei for so many things. As a longtime friend and collaborator, he continues to teach me so much about art and life. It is an honor to work so closely with such an extraordinary artist and humanist. His steadfast commitment to the worldwide refugee crisis, freedom of expression, human rights, and basic dignity for all people is unparalleled among his peers. While all our work together has been very meaningful, this project is particularly close to home, and I am most thankful for the opportunity to bring these words to the public.
LARRY WARSH
NEW YORK CITY
JANUARY 18, 2018
AI WEIWEI is renowned for making strong aesthetic statements that resonate with timely phenomena across today’s geopolitical world. From architecture to installations, social media to documentaries, Ai uses a wide range of mediums as expressions of new ways for his audiences to examine society and its values. Recent exhibitions include Good Fences Make Good Neighbors with the Public Art Fund in New York City; Ai Weiwei: Trace at Hirshhorn at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC; Maybe, Maybe Not at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem; Law of the Journey at the National Gallery in Prague; Ai Weiwei. Libero at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence; translocation — transformation at 21er Haus in Vienna; Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh; and Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Born in Beijing in 1957, Ai currently resides and works in Berlin. Ai is the Einstein Visiting Professor at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK); he is the recipient of the 2015 Ambassador of Conscience Award from Amnesty International and the 2012 Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent from the Human Rights Foundation. Ai’s first feature-length documentary Human Flow premiered at the 74th Venice Film Festival in competition.
LARRY WARSH has been active in the art world for more than thirty years. He is an early collector of Ai Weiwei and has collaborated with the artist on several significant projects, including the public art installation Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads (2010), which has been presented at more than forty venues internationally and seen by millions worldwide.
Warsh has been involved in numerous publishing projects over the last three decades, including original monographs on the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Ai Weiwei. He was also the catalyst and executive producer of the award-winning documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (2012).
Warsh is a former member of the Contemporary Arts Council of the Asia Society and the Contemporary Arts Committee of the China Institute. He has served on the boards of the Alliance for the Arts and the Getty Museum Photographs Council. He was a founding member of the Basquiat Authentication Committee.
This broad subject of humanity and its progress has been a lifelong focus. In addition to his work with Ai Weiwei addressing the refugee crisis, Warsh is collaborating with artist Lawrence Weiner on Out of Sight, a project that aims to enrich the experiences of young people around the world, and to foster the ideals of humanity and compassion.
Frontispiece: Ai Weiwei on Lesbos, 2016. Image courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio.
Page 134: Ai Weiwei, Law of the Journey, 2017. Installation view at the National Gallery in Prague, 2017. Image courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio.