the Cooper Union School of Art Interdisciplinary Seminar

Charles Merewether

Ai Weiwi: Under Construction

This lecture took place on November 11th, 2008 at 7:00 pm in the Wollman Auditorium at the Cooper Union

Lecture introduction

The lecture will focus around the work of Ai Weiwei looking at the recent production of ‘Fairytale’ for Documenta (2008) where he invited 1000 ordinary Chinese to Kassel, some of whom had no official name let alone passport. The lecture will trace back his work, from his early readymades made when living in New York in the Eighties to the collaboration with the design of the Bejing Olympic Stadium. Speaking against much of contemporary art being currently produced in China, the lecture will argue that his practice represents a radical deconstructive position shaped in opposition to both state ideology and the aesthetic imperatives of the market place.

About Charles Merewether

Dr Charles Merewether is an art historian and curator. He is currently Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Between 2007-08 he was Deputy Director of the Cultural District (Saadiyat Island) for the Tourism Development & Investment Co. in Abu Dhabi and prior Arts and Culture Consultant for the Emirates Foundation in the UAE.  He is also Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Hong Kong International Art Fair. Born in Scotland and educated in Australia, he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Literature and doctorate in Art History at the University of Sydney. Between 2004-2006 he was the Artistic Director & Curator of the Biennale of Sydney, from 1994 to 2004, Collections Curator at the Getty Center in Los Angeles and between 1991-1994 the Inaugural Curator of the Museo Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey (Mexico). He has taught at the University of Sydney, Universidad Autonoma in Barcelona, the Ibero-Americana in Mexico City and University of Southern California and been recipient of various Fellowships including at Yale University (USA), Japan and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Cross Cultural Research, Australian National University 2004-2007. Merewether has published widely on modernism and contemporary art in East Asia, Australia, the Americas and Europe. His most recent book publications include Under Construction: Ai Weiwei (2008), Art, Anti-Art, Non-Art: Experimentations in the Public Sphere in Postwar Japan 1950-1970, (2007); General and Commissioning Editor, Zones of Contact (2006) and Editor, The Archive (2006). He is currently writing a book on the cultural history of looting, and another on postwar photography in Japan. 

Relevant Links

• The readings for this lecture are available on the student login page.
• Books by Charles Merewether
• Ai Weiwei's website
• Press release for Weiwei's Fairytale