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Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly: Art, Human Rights, and the Power of Writing a Letter
Renowned artist Ai Weiwei engaged nearly 900,000 visitors in a conversation about human rights with his art installation @ Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz . In one participatory piece, Yours Truly, visitors sent 92,829 postcards to prisoners of conscience around the world. This book delves into those postcards' lasting impact. Five former prisoners and their loved ones reflect on the experience of receiving hundreds of postcards while imprisoned. Essays and a statement by Ai Weiwei contextualize this extraordinary project. And photographs taken during the exhibition show visitors and the messages they wrote. The book also includes four pre-addressed, tear-out postcards, inviting readers—whether art lovers or activists—to send hope to individuals still imprisoned for defending human rights.
- GenresArtNonfictionPolitics
128 pages, Paperback
Published September 11, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 3, 2021
This book serves as a companion piece to Ai Weiwei's @Large exhibit at Alcatraz, and his related activism for prisoners of conscience all over the world.
As a former prisoner and dissident in China, he has devoted his time to making the stories of other "prisoners of conscience" known and supported. The exhibit at Alcatraz encouraged visitors to write postcards to the prisoners, and in the time of the exhibition, over 98,000 postcards were written/drawn for these people.
These prisoners include journalists, political dissidents, whistleblowers, and many other people who are now (or were) incarcerated by nations for their morality and their courage. The book profiles five specific prisoners with personal essays on their "crimes" and their incarcerations/tortures, and their reactions to receiving the postcards of support generated by the exhibit.
I never saw the exhibit in California, but this book is a powerful piece about the struggle for justice and transparency, and the continued fight by many people around the globe.
As a former prisoner and dissident in China, he has devoted his time to making the stories of other "prisoners of conscience" known and supported. The exhibit at Alcatraz encouraged visitors to write postcards to the prisoners, and in the time of the exhibition, over 98,000 postcards were written/drawn for these people.
These prisoners include journalists, political dissidents, whistleblowers, and many other people who are now (or were) incarcerated by nations for their morality and their courage. The book profiles five specific prisoners with personal essays on their "crimes" and their incarcerations/tortures, and their reactions to receiving the postcards of support generated by the exhibit.
I never saw the exhibit in California, but this book is a powerful piece about the struggle for justice and transparency, and the continued fight by many people around the globe.
June 5, 2019
In such an unsettling and often frightening world we live in, it is easy to become discouraged just thinking about the shortcomings of our species. Greed, corruption, and violence appears to be all that we can hear when watching the news, while good deeds seem to be few and far between. With all that being said, it is simply astounding to hear what people can accomplish when entrenched by a moral goal. Renowned Chinese political activist, artist, and author, Ai Weiwei, delves into the complex subject of political imprisonment by doing something as straightforward as sending a postcard. Just a postcard.
Ai Weiwei may be the most prominent Chinese artist of this generation. Profoundly electric, yet elegantly conservative, each piece of art that he constructs paints a picture that no amount of words can express. Even if his work can be a tad unorthodox at times, it never ceases to prove a point. Most importantly, Ai Weiwei uses his art as a form of defiance towards subjects he perceives to be morally awry. He is a man who doesn’t let the fear of imprisonment or censorship blur his vision and Yours Truly is by no means an exception. Based on the “@Large” exhibition located on Alcatraz, Yours Truly faces political imprisonment in an unconventional, yet inspiring way. In 2014, Ai Weiwei held an exhibition in the former maximum-security prison of Alcatraz to, somewhat ironically, protest the unjust captivity of prisoners all across the globe. Instead of just simply showing pieces of art that displays his point, he allowed each visitor to involve themselves in the artistry and movement he encouraged to start. A postcard is nothing more than a thin piece of paper with writing. It holds little intrinsic value and costs just cents to mail. However, take into consideration the despondent circumstances of these prisoners in which the cards are being sent to. They live in squalid conditions, often lacking basic amenities that we all take for granted. Their governments treat them as less than second class citizens and they fear to live their entire lives in a deplorable cell, being completely forgotten about by the outside world. When a person is in the lowest part of their life, not knowing if death will arrive later that day, or not even knowing if a single soul in the universe cares for their existence, one piece of paper saying the contrary is all that it takes. Having just one person writing “Don’t give up” is just enough to give a morale boost. Sometimes, having faith is all it takes to sustain sanity for another day. Through reading Yours Truly, I learned that we must not only give love to those who merit it, but to those who need it the most.
This book doesn’t only describe Ai Weiwei’s @Large exhibition, but it also analyzes the lives of five prisoners who were released by the time of the book's completion. Ai Weiwei himself actually spent 81 days in prison. According to the Chinese government, he was detained due to tax evasion even though Ai stated that he didn’t commit the crime. It is more widely accepted that he was arrested because of his pro-democracy views towards the Chinese government and political activism through his artwork. Through the traumatic experience that he went through, he would know firsthand how truly terrifying it is to be unjustly imprisoned. The five people in which Yours Truly discusses are named John Kiriakou, Ebrahim Sharif Al Sayed, Irom Sharmila Chanu, Ahmed Maher, and Chelsea Manning. These people weren’t only from authoritarian-run dictatorships, but two were also from the USA, showing how not one country in the world is really safe from this injustice. John Kiriakou worked for the CIA until he was sentenced for treason. The only thing that he did was tell the populous that the CIA did, in fact, use waterboarding in an ABC News interview. A man was arrested for telling a truth. A man who was awarded countless Medal of Honours and even fought against Al Qaeda. He was imprisoned for treason.
“Liberty, is about our rights to question everything.” Ai Weiwei has never stopped being a voice for the voiceless. Throughout his years being a kind of iconoclast, he has never ceased to help his fellow man. Instead of seeing boundaries and differences in the human race, he views everyone as a whole and as equals. The postcards go to show that he radiates his passion through not just his art, but into the everyday lives of people in separate ways with Yours Truly being one of them. This book, though fairly short, is quite amazing, to say the least. Judging the book for what it is and not for what it could be, I am astonished by the amount of content Ai was able to express through each one of the pictures and the literature. Though not a light read, this book is really good for anybody who needs a lesson in human rights. I would recommend putting away just five hours to read through the book and think about the issue as a whole. Personally, I learned that no one person can make a large-scale change. However, it may be worth knowing that with just a few minutes of my time, I can turn around a person's week or even life. What are a few moments of my time compared to saving the life of another? In total 92,829 postcards were written and sent to political prisoners all across the globe. Astonishingly, many of these postcards weren’t seized by the government but actually given to the prisoners. This wasn’t even expected by Ai Weiwei himself. Because of the pressure put in place by the postcards, many of the popular convicts' people wrote to were released. However, a lot of prisoners remain behind the grim, rusty bars of a cell door to this day. Political imprisonment is a tough subject to fight against. Unlike many issues, governments don’t often confess to imprisoning people over their political beliefs or ideologies. Most importantly, I learned that prison is truly a degrading and inhumane process, especially to those who don’t deserve it in any way. Fighting for freedom will drive a person insane because as we all know, insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a better result. I will end this review by a quote by Ai Weiwei:
“I was in jail 81 days, but after 20 days my brain became completely empty; you need information to stay alive. When there’s no information you’re already dead. All I wanted was a dictionary, even the simplest one.”
Ai Weiwei may be the most prominent Chinese artist of this generation. Profoundly electric, yet elegantly conservative, each piece of art that he constructs paints a picture that no amount of words can express. Even if his work can be a tad unorthodox at times, it never ceases to prove a point. Most importantly, Ai Weiwei uses his art as a form of defiance towards subjects he perceives to be morally awry. He is a man who doesn’t let the fear of imprisonment or censorship blur his vision and Yours Truly is by no means an exception. Based on the “@Large” exhibition located on Alcatraz, Yours Truly faces political imprisonment in an unconventional, yet inspiring way. In 2014, Ai Weiwei held an exhibition in the former maximum-security prison of Alcatraz to, somewhat ironically, protest the unjust captivity of prisoners all across the globe. Instead of just simply showing pieces of art that displays his point, he allowed each visitor to involve themselves in the artistry and movement he encouraged to start. A postcard is nothing more than a thin piece of paper with writing. It holds little intrinsic value and costs just cents to mail. However, take into consideration the despondent circumstances of these prisoners in which the cards are being sent to. They live in squalid conditions, often lacking basic amenities that we all take for granted. Their governments treat them as less than second class citizens and they fear to live their entire lives in a deplorable cell, being completely forgotten about by the outside world. When a person is in the lowest part of their life, not knowing if death will arrive later that day, or not even knowing if a single soul in the universe cares for their existence, one piece of paper saying the contrary is all that it takes. Having just one person writing “Don’t give up” is just enough to give a morale boost. Sometimes, having faith is all it takes to sustain sanity for another day. Through reading Yours Truly, I learned that we must not only give love to those who merit it, but to those who need it the most.
This book doesn’t only describe Ai Weiwei’s @Large exhibition, but it also analyzes the lives of five prisoners who were released by the time of the book's completion. Ai Weiwei himself actually spent 81 days in prison. According to the Chinese government, he was detained due to tax evasion even though Ai stated that he didn’t commit the crime. It is more widely accepted that he was arrested because of his pro-democracy views towards the Chinese government and political activism through his artwork. Through the traumatic experience that he went through, he would know firsthand how truly terrifying it is to be unjustly imprisoned. The five people in which Yours Truly discusses are named John Kiriakou, Ebrahim Sharif Al Sayed, Irom Sharmila Chanu, Ahmed Maher, and Chelsea Manning. These people weren’t only from authoritarian-run dictatorships, but two were also from the USA, showing how not one country in the world is really safe from this injustice. John Kiriakou worked for the CIA until he was sentenced for treason. The only thing that he did was tell the populous that the CIA did, in fact, use waterboarding in an ABC News interview. A man was arrested for telling a truth. A man who was awarded countless Medal of Honours and even fought against Al Qaeda. He was imprisoned for treason.
“Liberty, is about our rights to question everything.” Ai Weiwei has never stopped being a voice for the voiceless. Throughout his years being a kind of iconoclast, he has never ceased to help his fellow man. Instead of seeing boundaries and differences in the human race, he views everyone as a whole and as equals. The postcards go to show that he radiates his passion through not just his art, but into the everyday lives of people in separate ways with Yours Truly being one of them. This book, though fairly short, is quite amazing, to say the least. Judging the book for what it is and not for what it could be, I am astonished by the amount of content Ai was able to express through each one of the pictures and the literature. Though not a light read, this book is really good for anybody who needs a lesson in human rights. I would recommend putting away just five hours to read through the book and think about the issue as a whole. Personally, I learned that no one person can make a large-scale change. However, it may be worth knowing that with just a few minutes of my time, I can turn around a person's week or even life. What are a few moments of my time compared to saving the life of another? In total 92,829 postcards were written and sent to political prisoners all across the globe. Astonishingly, many of these postcards weren’t seized by the government but actually given to the prisoners. This wasn’t even expected by Ai Weiwei himself. Because of the pressure put in place by the postcards, many of the popular convicts' people wrote to were released. However, a lot of prisoners remain behind the grim, rusty bars of a cell door to this day. Political imprisonment is a tough subject to fight against. Unlike many issues, governments don’t often confess to imprisoning people over their political beliefs or ideologies. Most importantly, I learned that prison is truly a degrading and inhumane process, especially to those who don’t deserve it in any way. Fighting for freedom will drive a person insane because as we all know, insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a better result. I will end this review by a quote by Ai Weiwei:
“I was in jail 81 days, but after 20 days my brain became completely empty; you need information to stay alive. When there’s no information you’re already dead. All I wanted was a dictionary, even the simplest one.”
November 5, 2018
I picked this book up after seeing his latest exhibit at the Marciano Foundation. It gave me a better understanding of Ai as an artist. I am inspired by his art activism. I recommend this book.
January 14, 2019
Powerful. Documentation of Ai Weiwei’s show on Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, 2014.
October 8, 2021
"The government is only strong when we are cowards and is weak when we are courageous"
Hope and support expressed through art. A handful of no doubt countless stories of those imprisoned for speaking against injustices around the world.
There's also a documentary that will be added to my watch list.
Hope and support expressed through art. A handful of no doubt countless stories of those imprisoned for speaking against injustices around the world.
There's also a documentary that will be added to my watch list.
November 22, 2021
A beautifully illustrated book about the darkest times in people's lives. This book tells the story of Ai Weiwei's 'Yours Truly' exhibition and some of the prisoners of conscience who remain imprisoned due to their beliefs.
Truly moving with copies of postcards sent to those in jail and the reactions they caused.
Truly moving with copies of postcards sent to those in jail and the reactions they caused.
April 18, 2021
art does change lives. :)
August 29, 2024
A good and great deed has happened. Supporting people of conscience who are incarcerated.
February 19, 2024
yup i love art and artists yup. abt an art instillation which connected ppl to those convicted for exercising freedom of speech. 'the govt is only strong when we are cowards and weak when we are courageous' purr
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews