Ai Wei Wei and the Duchampian Influence

Choo Li-Shan Samantha (lschoo.2010@smu.edu.sg) Exchange Student at Freie Universität Berlin

20th Century Art in Berlin, Germany and Beyond Humboldt-Universität Berlin

Instructor: Nico Anklam, M.A. Winter Semester 2013

Introduction

The works of Ai Weiwei, China’s most well-known contemporary artist, bears

many similarities to those of the late surrealist and Dadaist Marcel Duchamp.

Both are revolutionaries and rebels in their respective circles, always

challenging the norm and constantly adopting new methods to tease,

stimulate and provoke.

More importantly, both artists believe strongly in the concept of an artwork

being more relevant than the art itself. Ai is not just an artist, but is also

famously concerned with political issues and has ruffled more than a few

feathers in the Chinese government over the last decade in his unconstrained

pursuit of free expression and artistic commentary. His works resonate with

conceptual meaning, most often related to his pet cause: the repression of his

homeland by its government. This draws a parallel with Duchamp, who

wanted art to be “in the service of the mind” rather than the eye (“retinal art”)1.

His readymades subverted the nature of art and forced viewers to rethink the

aesthetic experience. It is clear that Ai has adopted a similar school of

thought: many of the concepts and much of the material that Ai uses in his art

practice are informed by post-conceptual thinking.

This paper will thus situate Ai Wei Wei’s works in relation to those of

Duchamp by comparing and contrasting works from each artist to

demonstrate the influence of Duchamp on Ai.

Readymades

One of the most distinct parallels that can be drawn between Duchamp and Ai

is the use of the readymade. One of Duchamp’s most famous readymades,

Bicycle Wheel (1913) (see Exhibit A), literally a bicycle wheel mounted and

                                                                                                               1 http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/duch/hd_duch.htm 2 http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=81631 3 John F. Moffitt, Alchemist of the Avant-Garde: The Case of Marcel Duchamp, (Albany, New York: State

inverted onto a stool, caused outrage among the artistic community of his

time, as such a simple object with such a casual genesis could not possibly

have been considered an honest piece of art. By withdrawing the hand of the

artist from the process of art and replacing articles made by an artist for

manufactured ones, he sparked a fierce discourse on established notions of

the artist’s craft and the viewer’s aesthetic experience.

Like Bicycle Wheel, Ai’s Stool (1997) (See Exhibit B) ignited similar

uneasiness and debate. Stool can be considered a readymade because of

Ai’s manipulation of readymade objects to produce a new, singular work of

art. To construct Stool, Ai selected two nearly identical three-legged stools

from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and melded them in a visually arresting

manner. One leg was removed so that the two stools fused into a single entity

using traditional Chinese techniques of nail-less joinery. The result is an

unnatural object that makes the viewer slightly uncomfortable due to its

alleged precariousness- although the transformed object rests steadily on

three legs, there is a distinct sense of being thrown off-balance. Ai tends to

remain taciturn when it comes to the interpretation of his art, but his

appropriation of three-hundred-year-old antiques suggests a rejection and an

overthrowing of Chinese tradition, history and culture.

Beyond their mutual use of the readymade and the stool, their other

commonalities are more profound:

• Idle visual pleasure:

Both works are highly curious objects. Duchamp had described Bicycle

Wheel as a “distraction”: “I enjoyed looking at it, just as I enjoy looking

at the flames dancing in a fireplace.”2 Stool has a similar mesmerizing

effect (“fireplace moment”) on the viewer in its oddity, structure and

imbalance; one cannot help but be drawn to it.

                                                                                                               2 http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=81631

• Comic effect:

Duchamp was well known for being a joker and often inserted tongue-

in-cheek elements into his work. Bicycle Wheel was not an exception. It

resembles a unicycle in its singular wheel- a device often associated

with the comical due to its circus and performing history. Like

Duchamp, Ai is also known for having a mischievous and rebellious

nature. Stool is similarly entertaining in its form: the viewer might

expect the structure to topple over at any given moment, conjuring

allusions to comedians and their clumsiness. On a side note, this

unsteadiness fits perfectly in line with the aforementioned suggestion of

Stool being a symbol of toppling Chinese tradition and culture.

• Cultural impact:

Both works were created not from an aesthetic approach (nor a

nostalgic one in Ai’s case) but rather created in order to stir up

conventional notions about culture and to question established values.

In various interviews, Duchamp was adamant about the vague and

almost accidental way in which Bicycle Wheel came into existence.

According to the artist, he did not have ‘any special reason to [build

Bicycle Wheel], or any intention of showing [the object], or describing

anything.’3 Nonetheless, the audience started to participate, to think

and to decide for themselves what art was. Likewise, Stool, which

liberated the original Qing Dynasty stools from their historical value, is

a commentary on the often bizarre contemporary Chinese society, with

modern China having flourished at the cost of the personal freedom of

its citizens.

In perhaps his most audacious and shocking work, Ai smashed a Han

Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) urn in the performance Dropping a Han Dynasty

Urn (1995), thus destroying two-thousand-years worth of tradition, culture and

                                                                                                               3 John F. Moffitt, Alchemist of the Avant-Garde: The Case of Marcel Duchamp, (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2003), 230  

history. It is remembered in a photo-triptych (see Exhibit D). Ai’s face, as he

sends it crashing to the ground, remains impassive and uncaring. It has been

said that Dropping, essentially an “ancient readymade”, belongs to a small

group of 20th-century ceramics that have changed the face of contemporary

art. Another famous ceramic that belongs to this class is none other than

Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) (see Exhibit C).

Fountain, arguably Duchamp’s most eminent and scandalous readymade,

consisted of a standard urinal, laid flat on its back rather than upright in its

usual position, and signed ‘R. Mutt 1917’. It is the epitome of the offensive on

conventional thought and aesthetic appreciation for which Duchamp and his

fellow Dadaists were known. Parallels can be drawn between Dropping and

Fountain: both were viewed as highly offensive, in both the ceramic

component was lost, and both originals live on only as photographs.

There are differences, of course. In Dropping, Ai in fact destroys the

readymade. Ai wanted to highlight China’s eagerness to shun aside its history

in the name of modernization- the country was quick to destroy historical and

cultural sites to make way for new luxury developments. Other themes

included questions of authenticity (many wondered if the urn was just one of

the thousands of fakes on the market) and the cycle of creative destruction.

Duchamp, on the other hand, was challenging conventional notions of art as

previously described.

Movement and Motion

Dropping also shares a similarity with Duchamp’s most famous painting, Nude

Descending A Staircase No. 2 (see Exhibit E): Both capture the element of

motion in a series of static representations. Nude Descending a Staircase

seems to depict a human figure in motion, in a style inspired by Cubist ideas

about the deconstruction of forms. The painting incorporates only abstract

lines, planes and browns. Lines follow the figure’s successive positions and

create a rhythmic sense of motion while shaded planes add depth and volume

to the nude’s form. The gradient of the sequence also changes: the top left

fades into the bottom right, apparently intending to depict the initial positions

of the figure.

It is interesting to note that the photographic motion studies of Muybridge and

Marey inspired Nude:

“I had seen chronophotographs of fencers in action and horse galloping

(what we today call stroboscopic photography) gave me the idea for

the Nude… The whole idea of movement, of speed, was in the air.”4

He also recalled of the relation between motion and his nude:

“My aim was a static representation of movement, a static composition

of indications of various positions taken by a form in movement—with

no attempt to give cinema effects through painting.”5

Ai’s choice to chronicle his act of dropping the Han Dynasty urn in a series of

photographs instead of video, which could have been a more natural medium,

could possibly have been influenced by Duchamp’s nude.

Conclusion

It is clear that like many contemporary artists, Ai is significantly influenced by

Duchamp in his art. The more one looks at Ai’s collection of work and

background, the more apparent it is that Duchamp had inspired him with the

model of how to be a inquisitive and provocative artist. But although this

influence resonates throughout Ai’s practice, it seems like Ai evolves and                                                                                                                4  Katherine Kuh, Marcel Duchamp, interview broadcast on the BBC program 'Monitor', 29 March 1961, published in Katherine Kuh (ed.), The Artist's Voice. Talks with Seventeen , Harper & Row, New York 1962, pp. 81-93  5 Peter Brooker, Andrew Thacke, Geographies Of Modernism: Literatures, Cultures, Spaces, Taylor & Francis US, 2005

goes beyond Duchamp in terms of conceptual practice due to his political and

cultural involvement and influence.

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When Ai first arrived in the United States, he encountered the Arensberg

Collection of Duchamp works at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Being

unaware of Duchamp at that time, Ai was astounded and ultimately inspired

by the late artist. He recalls:

“Until I discovered Duchamp, I had no idea that art could be a lifestyle...

[it] saved my life… I understood… that art could be a gesture, and that

a gesture could take any form the artist chose.”6

                                                                                                               6 Smith, Karen (2009). ‘Giant Provocateur.’ In: B. Fibicher, H. Obrist, and K. Smith, Ai Weiwei. London and New York: Phaidon Press LTD

Appendix Exhibit A –Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel. 1915. Metal wheel mounted on painted wood stool, 51 x 25 x 16 1/2" (129.5 x 63.5 x 41.9 cm).

Exhibit B – Ai Weiwei, Stool. 1997. Stool from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

Exhibit C –Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917/1964; glazed ceramic with black paint, 15 in. x 19 1/4 in. x 24 5/8 in. (38.1 cm x 48.9 cm x 62.55 cm)

Exhibit D – Ai Weiwei, Dropping of the Han Dynasty Urn, 1995/2004, gelatin silver print, 180 x 162cm each unit

Exhibit E - Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending A Staircase No. 2. 1912. Oil on canvas. 147 x 89.2cm