Through the part of the video that I watched, it talked about the social and cultural reform in china, the deaths of many who opposed the government and the way that affected many chinese artists at that time and their work. Chinese artists had to work underground to avoid trouble from the government, as art or any expression of ideas, emotions or thoughts were rebellious acts against the government, and punishable by death or torture. The video focuses on Ai Wei Wei's approach of representing this change in china, and how his work reflects that.
Work such as the millions of hand made porcelain sunflower seeds to represent the industrial boom and mass production in China; However all his seeds were hand made and painted.
He also produced replicas of ming dynasty furniture (tables & vases) and altering them in ways such as merging two together, making them prop up against walls by removing and replacing legs of tables at different angles so that one pair is on the floor and the other is on the wall. Also he destroyed many including a real ming vase, which he dropped and took several pictures of its fall as this is the fate which met a large amount of valued art with history which were destroyed as they expressed ideology and that could start a rebellion against the leader.
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