Ai Weiwei Global

When was the last time an artist commanded this much attention on an international scale? Ai Weiwei has still not been heard from or released, and China is indignant at the world's outcry of protest. Why the fuss for one lowly criminal? seems to approximate the Party line .

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei says Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is a suspected criminal and foreign support for him has confused and angered the Chinese people. (article)

Blaming "foreign support" is the indefatigable accusation made by unwanted, corrupt, and despicable regimes of repression the world over. It's always "foreigners" fomenting uprising and revolution, it couldn't possibly be that people are sick and tired of living under the ruthlessly dangerous rule of megalomaniacs.

Instead of persecuting artists of Ai's stature and global awareness (instead of persecuting artists of any stature!), we as civilized nations should celebrate artists.

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Interesting related material:

Allen Ginsberg knew Ai Weiwei in the 1980s when Ai lived in New York City.

The New Yorker has published a profile of Ai in the past and blog entries by Evan Osnos continue to inform on Ai's situation and fate.

Dollars Against the Wars, Frame #11

The last frame. The last three dollars of $33 against the miserable fucking wars. This is the unexpurgated post, the rant piece, the unfettered invective, as in;

Fuck Obama and his Afghanistan War expansion;

Fuck Bush & Co for Iraq, that cataclysmic crime against humanity, he and his people should be tried before an international court of justice and compelled to answer for their depravity;

Fuck both cowardly political parties for endlessly hand-jobbing the military industrial complex (a term that, come to think of it, obscures and obfuscates the true nature of that 'industry' which is, in reality, the industry of war profiteering);

and yeah, and Fuck the "security contractor" mercenaries employed by US in Iraq and Afghanistan;

and just for good measure, Fuck the covert & overt drone operations murdering people in Pakistan and Yemen and elsewhere.

Three last dollars that went into the great yawning hungry maw of homelessness in D.C. and across the country, this permanent fucking war economy is killing people.

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Dollars Against the Wars

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Infinite Study

David Foster Wallace's unfinished, posthumous novel The Pale King has just been published. The web is awash in articles about the new book, about Wallace himself, and about the legacy of the writer who, since taking his own life in 2008, has been almost universally acclaimed as one of the most important American writers of the last two generations.

The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin acquired DFW's archives, including manuscripts, notebooks, and many books from his personal library, all of which is available to scholars and enthusiasts. Coinciding with the release of The Pale King, the Ransom Center presents material associated with the writing of the book, accessed here.

One of the plethora of articles that have emerged since Wallace's death  is "Inside David Foster Wallace's Self-Help Library" by Maria Bustillos. When I came upon this piece, my first reaction was 'Gad, this whole DFW scholarship thing sure got excessive and pointless in a hurry.' And then I read the article. It's fascinating and anything but trite or pointless and offers what the best of these sorts of articles can, a unique and considered insight into the life and thinking of an artist hailed, admired, and read by many, many people, any number of whom themselves are serious working artists. The Bustillos article is first rate literary journalism.

Dollars Against the Wars, Frame #10

Still no word from China about Ai Weiwei, except the announcement that he was being investigated for "economic crimes." Additional news reports suggest the Chinese government is attempting a smear campaign by alleging that he's a plagiarist and by accusing him of producing "obscene art." Whatever the rubric under which Mr. Ai has been arrested, few doubt that the real reason is China's desire to intimidate and silence dissent, particularly in the wake of the Middle East uprisings and similar calls for rebellion across China itself.

In this second to last frame of Dollars Against the Wars, we suggest a link between the three ongoing wars the United States is enmeshed in, and the vast network of arms sales and munitions trafficking. The US, it should be noted, is the world's leading arm's dealer. For more on the role of the US in supplying the world lethal weaponry, link to this page at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).

Here's just one fun fact you can find from the above link:

Foreign Military Financing:  Foreign Military Financing refers to congressionally appropriated grants given to foreign governments to finance the purchase of American-made weapons, services and training. Since 1950, the US government has provided over $91 billion in FMF to militaries around the world. The vast majority of these funds goes to Israel and Egypt to reward them for making a cold peace in 1979.

This is just great, isn't it? Some "free market." The US gives money to foreign governments to buy American-made "weapons, services and training." Well, fuck! We're using tax money to pay other governments to buy weapons made by private US companies. What a racket!

Nevertheless, it's a safe bet that these three dollars will not end up in a wad of bills exchanged in some back alley in Cairo for the purchase of a RPG.

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Ai Weiwei

Two images from Ai Weiwei's "Finger" Series.

White House

Eiffel Tower

His Sunflower Seed installation at the Tate Modern in London last year captivated and astonished. Read Adrian Searle's essay on the show in the Guardian (Oct, 2010).

Numerous international media articles, like this one from Aljazeera, report that the artist was detained by Chinese authorities on Sunday, April 3rd at the Beijing International Airport as he was boarding a flight to Hong Kong. Later, his studio was raided by police. He has not been seen or heard from since.

Call the Chinese Embassy in D.C. and demand that Ai Weiwei be released from detention - (202) 495-2266

Dollars Against the Wars, Frame #9

Today's post is in honor of Ai Weiwei, an artist of grand scale and prodigious energy, an artist who has unfortunately been detained by the Chinese authorities and whose exact whereabouts at this moment are unknown. See a short slide show of images from the New York Times here.

Meanwhile, the wars go on and these three domestic dollars cycle in and out of hands and pockets and cash registers.

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Dollars Against the Wars, Frame #8

In 2009, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison took home $84.5 million. For the 2010 Major League Baseball season, Alex Rodriguez was compensated for his labor to the tune of $33 million. The net worth of the richest 400 Americans in 1910? $1.37 trillion. Bill Gates tops the list at a modest $54 billion fortune.

Three cheers for the Free Market!

These three dollars will never navigate the free market beyond street level, the urban equivalent of the subsistence farmer.

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