Ai Wei Wei

Ai Weiwei: Dropping The Urn

It's the first time I heard someone break an urn that is from a really long time ago on purpose.Usually these kind of objects will be taken care of very well, since they are relatively valuable for its long extrodinary long history.However, Ai broke it and documented that process, then made it a piece of artwork. It can probably not be seen as art if someone just randomly breaks something, doesn't matter how much the value of the thing he breaks is. But here, there are  definitely some symbolic significantions we can find behind the Han Dynasty Urn. And it is because of these symbolic meanings that makes this become art.

So first of all,what is the meaning of the archaic Chinese urn.It is from more than a thousand of years ago China,which symbolizes the Chinese traditional culture.The culture, like the urn, is treasured by everybody else for its historical value,and nobody would even think about harming it. However,in the pictures we can see that Ai just broke it so easily and casually without any worries or concern.His act shows his disagreement with the Chinese traditional culture, and at the same time he also breaks people's ordinary thinking and values about an object.Now the urn is an artwork not merely because of its long age, but it has actually become a part of the symbolic act that the artist has done to express his concept about the traditional culture. There's a transformation of the artistic value of the urn happening when it's being broken by the artist.

Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995). Middle view of a triptych of gelatin silver prints, each print 49 5/8” x 39 1/4”. Courtesy private collection, USA.