Ai Weiwei
According to an article in The New York Times by Jacob Andrew, Ai Weiwei is currently listed as the most controversial and bravest artist of today. Ai is a Chinese contemporary artist who specializes in sculpture, curating, architecture, installation, photography, and film. His works are usually inspired by social/political issues and cultural criticism. He is an extremely outspoken human rights activist . Besides his art, Ai used to use Twitter and his personal blog to bring attention to and raise awareness about concerns surrounding the human rights of Chinese people. Sadly though, his blog was shut down and Twitter was banned in China. This was shortly after the earthquake of Sichuan caused neglected government school buildings to collapse. Ten months after the earthquake, the Chinese government still had not revealed the victims' names, so Ai took it about himself to collect them. He ended up with over 5,200 names which he posted on his blog and sent a link to it via Twitter. Not only did the Chinese police permanently remove his blog and ban Twitter after this incident, but they also personally beat and attacked Ai. Though tragic things have happened to Ai, he is still making art and speaking out against China's government. (Sydell)
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"Dropping the Urn" by Ai Weiwei where he is pictured dropping sacred Chinese urns.