AI WEIWEI

Standing Figure

Marble

188 × 80 × 58 cm

Executed in 2016

A B O U T   T H E   A R T I S T

Ai Weiwei (born 1957) is one of the most famous artists to emerge from modern-day China. As an activist, he uses his art and film work to draw attention to human rights violations and raise awareness of social, cultural and political issues in his native country and beyond.

A B O U T   T H E   A R T W O R K

Taking his cue from cultural histories, Standing Figure was created in response to Ai’s time spent in Greece. The sculpture fuses imagery from Ancient Greek culture with the artist’s own practice: the angular features of Standing Figure mimic those of the figurines of the Ancient Cycladic period in Greece, but the figure’s traditionally crossed arms are here outstretched, hands apart. This stance visually references one of Ai’s infamous photographic series Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn which shows him deliberately letting an ancient urn slip from his hands and shatter at his feet, alluding to the wilful destruction of China’s antique objects during the Cultural Revolution. By quoting the Chinese Cultural Revolution as well as ancient Greek artefacts, Standing Figure becomes an allegory for the destruction and preservation of national heritage. By linking human figures of the past and present, Ai’s Standing Figure reflects on both contemporary China and Greece, their identification to their pasts, and their different treatments of history.