Some of us may already be looking for Christmas presents; others, instead, may be more interested in something to cheer themselves up in our dark and depressing times, and may want to invest in something more durable rather than a designer piece like a luxury bag (considering also the fact that due to Coronavirus our social interactions have dramatically reduced and there aren't many occasions where we may wear a special piece...). If you fall into these two categories (and can afford it), you may opt for Ai Weiwei's limited edition bags and scarves for Taschen.
These pieces are inspired by the "Papercut Portfolio" created by Ai Weiwei in 2019 for the same publishing house. In that case the artist moved from a time-honoured Chinese art going back to 2,000 years and used for festivities, prayers, and as everyday decoration, to tell, through intricately cut paper, a narrative combining a traditional technique with his life and practice.
The bags and scarves are recreations of some of these papercuts and incorporate a series of references to Ai Weiwei's works. The red bag motif, for example, looks at a decisive period in Ai Weiwei's life, from his return to Beijing in 1993 after a decade-long stay in New York to building his Caochangdi home and studio on the Beijing outskirts in 1999. The middle finger in the centre of the papercut is inspired by a 1995 photograph that marked the beginning of his series "Studies of Perspective" with his outstretched middle finger on various world-famous sights including the Eiffel Tower (View this photo) and the White House (View this photo). In this specific papercut the middle finger is positioned on the Forbidden City and accompanied by the word "Fuck", a reference to a photographic piece in which the artist had the same word sunburnt on his chest.
The antique vases with the Coca-Cola logo are references instead to the "Han Dynasty Urn with Coca Cola Logo" (1994). The logo is intended as a reference to brand culture or political identity; the cats and dogs are a tribute to the many animals that wander in the artist's studio and the tables on which they are standing hint at Ai Weiwei's sculptures in which historic antique tables are combined together so that the authenticity of the tables in their original form is destroyed to give these pieces a completely new identity.
The white tote bag is instead a great commentary to art, collecting, authenticity and appropriation: this piece references indeed the treasure looted from Beijing’s Old Summer Palace by Western powers during the Second Opium War in 1860.
Designed by the Italian Jesuit Giuseppe Castiglione for the court of the Emperor Qianlong (1711–1799), the zodiac water-clock fountain is legendary as it included precious bronze-plated sculptures of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. Dismantled by the British and French troops that sacked the palace and that left behind ruins preserved in a public park to this day, the water-clock doesn't exist anymore in its integrity. Seven animal heads still exist, preserved in Western collections, but five were lost (dragon, snake, ram, rooster, and dog), so Ai Weiwei designed these animals himself, raising new questions about authenticity and cultural appropriation.
The scarves remind instead of two events: the blue one is dedicated to a papercut commemorating Ai Weiwei's project for the 2007 edition of Documenta in Kassel, where he took 1,001 Chinese people from every walk of life who had never left their country before. For this event the artist designed their clothes, suitcases, and - as depicted in this papercut - also cut their hair.
The scarf also includes the monumental outdoors installation "Template", built from Ming and Qing Dynasty wooden doors and windows salvaged from demolished buildings, which collapsed in a thunderstorm a few days after the opening of the event as seen in the lower right center of the papercut.
The "Citizens' Investigation" scarf is dedicated to all those who search for the truth and it is linked to more tragic events: on May 12, 2008, a 7.9 earthquake struck China's Sichuan Province. Its deathtoll reached almost 70,000, among them there were many schoolchildren and the papercut shows people amid the rubble, including a woman holding up a picture of her missing child, helpers and investigators trying to find victims and survivors.
As the Chinese government withheld information on the identities of the victims, Ai Weiwei organised a team of volunteers to investigate and compile a list of the deceased children - a project known as the "Citizens' Investigation". But the investigation discovered not just the number of child victism - 5,335 - with their name, age, gender, school, hometown, and family details, but also unveiled how corruption caused many of the schools to be constructed far below official safety standards, the final reason behind the disproportionate number of deaths.
For this project Ai Weiwei faced government retaliation: in 2009 he went to Chengdu to testify as a witness for Tan Zuoren, an activist who had also been investigating corruption-related issues around the earthquake and was facing trial for subversion of state power. The night before the trial, on August 12, Ai and his colleagues were assaulted in their hotel rooms and detained by police until the trial was over to prevent his testimony. The image in the centre of the papercut is based on a famous photograph that Ai took of his colleagues and himself in the elevator immediately after the assault. The artist suffered a brain hemorrhage as a result of the police beating, which is documented in the CAT scans at the bottom of the composition.
The bags are sold unframed in a passepartout and the scarves are packaged in a box and, while it is clear that the bags are not designed to carry much but to be framed, these pieces still try to combine art and fashion. Ordinary accessories are indeed given a new identity as the original function of bags and scarves is radically transformed to create intricate narrative inspired by Ai Weiwei's life and expressed through the language of art.
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