Exile, censorship and art: Ai Weiwei lets rip

The legendary dissident artist tells Martin Robinson about his new Ai vs AI exhibition in Piccadilly and the chilling similarities he sees between western cancel culture and Chinese oppression

-  Martin Robinson

TRADITIONALLY, the Year of the Dragon is believed to be associated with unpredictability and significant transformations - while such changes present opportunities, they can also be crises." Ai Weiwei, one of the greatest artists in the world and designer of the exclusive Chinese New Year cover adorning the Standard today, knows a thing or two about crises. The son of dissident poet Ai Qing, he was exiled by the Maoist regime to remote China as a child, and later, as an adult artist, was imprisoned without trial in 2011 for speaking out against the oppressive regime. Since escaping the country in 2015, he has been an artist in exile, whose work reflects on his experiences and challenges power, concentrating heavily on the need for freedom of speech.

What is often missed in responses to him and his art is the way he has grabbed opportunities amid the crises.

While some defenders of free speech do so in bad faith, hijacking the phrase to spread fear and intolerance, Ai's work and words come from a humane place.

He says the Chinese New Year has no particular significance for him personally, but he recognises, "It is still a story that is related to billions of people's fantasy, expectations and a kind of connection to something beautiful. Our conceptualization of time is both a personal and communal endeavour."

Does this mean there's a soft centre under the hardness of his art? Actually, this is simply a reminder that the reason his art challenges is because he cares.

He knows what the cost can be to real lives when freedom of speech is curtailed and is highly attuned to its suppression. Chillingly, he sees increasing parallels in the West with the Chinese oppression he experienced: "The current constraints on freedom of speech in the West regress society to bygone era devoid of the support for free thinking and expression, akin to a primitive state."