Exploring the interplay between authenticity, value and cultural heritage, Ai Weiwei’s Colored Vases, 2014, uproots tradition and dips it in industrial paint. Consisting of six Neolithic vases, the work is both rebellious and deeply reverent to Chinese history, critiquing both cultural and historical vandalism in turn. Toying between the high and low with these painted dipped vases, Weiwei shifts the narrative surrounding the artist's role by placing these objects in conversation with contemporary visual culture writ large. Weiwei discusses his practice by saying, “My work always has some kind of contradiction within it.”i The present work is grounded in the idea of such a juxtaposition: contrast in medium, color, and origin. Weiwei uses this series to blend binaries present in his practice, between East and West, and the polarities of old and new.
“All my works play with art history. As a contemporary artist, I can never leave the context of what contemporary philosophy or aesthetics are.”
—Ai Weiwei
By aesthetically manipulating a series of historical objects, the question arises: is Weiwei fracturing our interpretations of both the richness of the past, the ephemeral qualities of the present and somehow breaking our ideas of both? Through this work's physical process, Weiwei creates a dialogue between culture, value, and ownership. Via his tactful manipulation of these previously anonymous vases, Weiwei is claiming these objects and their canonical weight as his own. By reframing tradition, Weiwei confronts Chinese artistic authority while engaging an international audience, making Colored Vases an essential piece in his rebellious oeuvre.
