Ai Weiwei, his Face Mask Artwork and Criticism of China

Ai Weiwei produced a series of face masks. Thus, his most iconic artworks have been printed on masks to help counter the “humanitarian crisis” arising from Covid-19.

The Chinese artist is currently in lockdown in the United Kingdom. He hopes to raise at least $1 million for international charities: the Charities which help displaced and vulnerable people impacted by the pandemic.

Three designs are being made available at $50 each. This includes works titled “Sunflower Seeds” and “Mast with Middle Finger”. This is a reference to a display that saw Ai fill London’s Tate Modern with over seeds of 100 million porcelain.

Many of the other designs are only available in more massive sets of four or twenty. These allude to the freedom of expression and state control. Moreover, these are issues the dissident artist has long addressed his work. Among them are images of surveillance camera and a crab, handcuffs, a reference to a Chinese slang term referring to censorship.

Weiwei produces it in collaboration with Alexandra Munroe, curator of Guggenheim Museum. Moreover, the studio of Weiwei in Berlin prints the face masks. Starting from the next month’s Thursday, the items will be available via eBay.

Nevertheless, cloth masks are not for medical use. Moreover, they are not meant to be worn—the artwork’s goal to raise money for vulnerable groups. These groups include refugees and migrants. Their plight has featured heavily in Weiwei’s activism and art in recent years.

All the proceeds will go to the Covid-19 responses organized by Medicins Sans Frontieres, Human Rights Watch, and Refugees International.

Weiwei and his Thoughts

The threat of the livelihoods of vulnerable people from AI requires each individual to act. He thinks that we must work both collectively and alone.

In a media statement, he said that our small individual actions become more powerful when they are part of the social response. For example, an individual who wears a mask makes a gesture. Nevertheless, a society that wears masks combats a deadly virus. A society that is wearing masks because of their individual choices, rather than because of the authorities’ directive, can withstand and defy any force.

Weiwei added that no act is too helpless, and no will is too small.

Kenneth Roth is the Human Rights Watch’s executive director. He described, in a press release, the project as a powerful example of activism and art coming together for good. Eric Schwartz is Refugees International president. He called it a noble initiative that sounds the alarm on the threat that the pandemic poses upon displaced people. UNHCR is the UN Refugee Agency. On Tuesday, they warned that urban refugees in Africa are struggling to meet basic needs because of COVID-19’s economic impact and subsequent lockdowns.

Weiwei also spoke concerning the political implications of a pandemic. Weiwei especially did it in China, where he was frequently subjected to detention and harassment before entering self-exile in Germany in 2015.

After that, he has moved to the United Kingdom, Cambridge. Last month he had an interview with CNN Style. There, he expressed concerns about the country’s government strengthens its police state.