Saturday, May 23, 2009





Chinese artist and designer Ai Weiwei worked with a group of architects to design the 'Bird's Nest' stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Research the artist and the work to find out why he later called the work a 'fake smile'. Explain how his personal philosophies are different from and at odds with, that of the Chinese government.


Ai Weiwei along with Jacques Harzog, Pierre de Meuron of Herzog and de Meuron, and Stefon Marbach all designed this amazing building called 'The Bird's Nest' which was solely built for the 2008 summer Olympics and the Paralympics.
The stadium cost US $423 Million to build and became the worlds largest steel structure. The incredible steel frames were designed in order to hide the supports for the retractable roof which was later removed from the design along with 9,000 seats due to stability reasons.
17,000 workers worked on building this stadium and an estimated 2 workers died during construction.
Due to the outward appearance this building has it was nicknamed 'The Bird's Nest'- in China a bird's nest soup is very expensive, it is something you only eat on special occasions so in turned it made this structure seem expensive and elegant.
Thisbuliding consists of around 110,000 tons of steel which was all made in China. Pipes are placed under the playing field to gather heat in the winter to warm the stadium up and coolness in the summer to cool the place down.

Since the 2008 Olympics the stadium has not found significant use which therefore has given the designers an opportunity to add something that will bring more people along. They have decided that they will build a shopping mall and hotel into the stadium so that more people will come along and bring them back money. This structure costs the government $9 million to maintain per year.


Ai Weiwei gave 'The Bird's Nest' another name which was 'Fake Smile'. He gave it this name in an attack of the disgusting political conditions in the one-party state. Weiwei told the guardian that he would not attend the opening ceremony or allow himself to be associated with either the government or the games. He linked the Bird's Nest and the general use of art/architecture for the propaganda purposes to a 'fake smile' used to hide the unseemly reality of China.

"China is trying to hide to many things. The whole political structure, the condition of civil rights.....corruption, pollution, education, you name it"

Ai Weiwei says he was not hired by the Chinese governemtn but by a Swiss architectural comapny.
He was questioning weather it's possible for a society that doesn't have democracy to excite the joys and celebrations of it's people. Is it possible for such a society to win international recognition and approval when liberty and freedom of expression are lacking?
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Saturday, March 28, 2009





Research Damian Hirst's work, which is a Diamond Encrusted Skull.Discuss what this work is about, especially in relation to Mercantillism.In your opinion does it communicate these ideas effectively? After reading about this work, what is your opinion of it as a work of art?



Damian Hurt's work the Diamond Encrusted Skull titled, 'For the Love of God' is a human skull that is beleived to have come from a man who lived between 1720 and 1810 from Reuters. This skull is covered in 8601 pave set diamonds that weighs around 1106.18 carats, the single large diamond inthe middle of the forehead is reportedly worth $4.2 million. The diamond encrusted skull is said to be worth more than $50 million or maybe even $100 million.

Hurst financed this whole project himself and it estimated to cost between $10 and $15 million!

This piece of work is the center piece for his show 'Beyond Belief' which is in Jay Joplings new gallery 'White Cube 3' in London.

The name for this piece of art came from his mother who asked her son "For the love of god, what are you going to do next?"



Hurst believes that this piece of art is about when archaeology is inspiring modern art. He has taken something that has been done in many cultures throughout many different times and reproduced it into popular and profitable art.

Damian Hurst wants to celebarte life by saying to hell with death. What better way of saying that then by taking the ultimate symbol of death and covering it in the ultimate symbol of luxury, desire and decodence.



I fell that in this piece of art Hurst has expressed what he wanted to say very well because to me it looks very expensive and only someone who is very much upper class and wealthy would own something like this.

To me i do feel this is a piece of art because it took a long time to come together and people look at is as if its very delicate and priceless which i believe alot of art work is.



This piece of art is also worth alot becasue Damian Hurst is a very well known artist, he is estimated to be worth around $100 million alone. He is ranked as the most powerful indiviual in the contempory art world by Art Review magazine.
This piece of art work doesn't really relate to mercantilism because mercantilism is when a system is based on the city or nation state's fixation with getting more national wealth and increasing its economic power. Hirst did not aim to sell his art works, he believes that every art work has very different ideas and themes.
However many people believe that this art piece is connected to mercaniltism. They think that the Diamond Encrusted Skull connectes with mercantilism by them seeing this through their ambition. You can tell this by the way articles have been written about the work: most of the articles are about how much the piece is worth and how much it cost Hirst to produce it, not about the meaning behind it or the reason why Damien Hirst made this particular piece.
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