Dear Art Collector Handkerchief by Guerrilla Girls
$20.00
embroidered, 100% lawn cotton
18.5 x 11.5 inches
open edition
cold wash only
OBJECT DESCRIPTION
This 100% lawn cotton, embroidered handkerchief from the Guerrilla Girls can be framed or functional. Made in collaboration with the artist and our partners at Third Drawer Down Studio.
Cats & Dogs Scarf by Ai Weiwei
$300.00
100% silk scarf
handwoven and hand-silkscreened
finished with hand-rolled edges
35.4 x 35.4 inches
edition of 2,500
custom gift box
OBJECT DESCRIPTION
The scarf takes its motif from a papercut created by Ai Weiwei as part of his Papercut Portfolio, which was published by TASCHEN in a signed and limited edition in 2019.
Using the traditional Chinese art of the papercut, Ai Weiwei’s Cats and Dogs reflects on a decisive period in the artist’s life and work: from his return to Beijing in 1993 after a decade-long stay in New York to building his renowned Caochangdi home and studio on the Beijing outskirts in 1999. At the center of the papercut, he gives the finger to the Forbidden City, effectively obscuring the portrait of Mao Zedong that presides over Tiananmen Square. This motif is from a 1995 photo- graph that marked the beginning of his series Studies of Perspective, in which his outstretched middle finger measured the Eiffel Tower, the Mona Lisa, the White House, and many other sights and non-sites around the world. Another familiar trope of Ai’s Beijing years was the word “FUCK,” which he sunburned into his chest for a photo piece and installed as a huge neon sign in his garden. Ai’s Chinese company is named FAKE—pronounced closely to “fuck” in Chinese.
In this period, Ai developed two iconoclastic groups of works with Neolithic vases or antique Ming (1368 –1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) furniture. Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo (1994)—of which two versions can be seen in the papercut—brands a historical artifact with the trademark of contemporary capitalism. “The Coca-Cola logo is a clear announcement of property, and of cultural or political identity,” Ai says. “But it is also a clear sign to stop thinking. It’s full of ignorance, but it’s also a redefinition.” He also joined Ming and Qing Dynasty tables into sculptural permutations such as Table with Two Legs on the Wall (1997; upper right), Table with Crossed Corners (1998; lower right), Table with Three Legs (1998; lower left), and Tables at Right Angles (1998; upper right). All carpentry was done using traditional mortise and tenon techniques, fitting the pieces together without nails or glue. “We took great care with the cutting and sanding to make sure the patina of the furniture looked untouched,” Ai explains. “Even an expert would be con- fused because everything is so perfect.” Among these tables, Stool (1997; middle left) stands out as the poor cousin. It is composed of a pair of three-legged stools, ubiquitous to every Chinese household, sharing a leg.
Ai Weiwei’s cats, numbering over forty, have become famous in their own right. Among other animals, including dogs, peacocks, and hedgehogs, they freely roam his studio and garden at 258 Caochangdi, and are inscrutable fixtures in thousands of selfies with visitors from all around the world. A short film, 258 Cats, was made about them in 2013.
Gorilla Bandana by Guerrilla Girls
$18.00
OBJECT DESCRIPTION
This multi-purpose art accessory by the Guerrilla Girls can be added to your wardrobe or framed on your wall.
Citizen's Investigation Scarf by Ai Weiwei
$300.00
100% silk scarf
handwoven and hand-silkscreened
finished with hand-rolled edges
35.4 x 35.4 inches
edition of 2,500
custom gift box
OBJECT DESCRIPTION
The scarf takes its motif from a papercut created by Ai Weiwei as part of his Papercut Portfolio, which was published by TASCHEN in a signed and limited edition in 2019.
Using the traditional Chinese art of the papercut, Ai Weiwei’s Citizens’ Investigation reflects on a momentous event for the artist’s life and work: on May 12, 2008, a massive earthquake of magnitude 7.9 struck China’s Sichuan Province. The papercut shows people amid the rubble: a woman holding up a picture of her missing child, helpers and investigators trying to find victims and survivors. The death toll reached almost 70,000 and appeared particularly high among schoolchildren, but the Chinese government barely provided any information about the victims’ identities. Ai Weiwei organized a team of volunteers to investigate and compile a list of the deceased children, a project known as the “Citizens’ Investigation.” They compiled a somber list of 5335 child victims with their name, age, gender, school, hometown, and family details. It was discovered that corruption had caused many of the schools to be constructed far below official safety standards, causing a disproportionate number of deaths when the earthquake struck.
Ai faced escalating government retaliation for his investigation and his political commentary on Twitter. In 2009 he went to Chengdu to testify as a witness for Tan Zuoren, an activist who had also been investigating corruption-related issues around the earthquake and was now facing trial for subversion of state power. The night before the trial, on August 12, Ai and his colleagues were assaulted in their hotel rooms and detained by police until the trial was over to prevent his testimony. The image in the papercut’s center is based on a famous photograph that Ai took of his colleagues and himself in the elevator immediately after the assault. Ai suffered a brain hemorrhage as a result of the police beating, which is documented in the CAT scans at the bottom of the composition. The Chinese phrases read “Citizens’ Investigation of the Great Earthquake of May 12” (left) and “Cherish Life and Reject Forgetting” (right).
Haircut Scarf by Ai Weiwei
$300.00
100% silk scarf
handwoven and hand-silkscreened
finished with hand-rolled edges
35.4 x 35.4 inches
edition of 2,500
custom gift box
OBJECT DESCRIPTION
The scarf takes its motif from a papercut created by Ai Weiwei as part of his Papercut Portfolio, which was published by TASCHEN in a signed and limited edition in 2019.
Using the traditional Chinese art of the papercut, Ai Weiwei’s Haircut reflects on an important event in the artist’s life and work: his participation in documenta XII in Kassel, Germany, in 2007, when he brought 1001 Chinese citizens to the city for his work Fairytale. They had responded to an open call Ai had posted on his blog, which was answered by more than 3000 applicants. He selected people belonging to every section of Chinese society including farmers, homemakers, police officers, street vendors, students, teachers, artists, and the unemployed. It was an extraordinary opportunity for many people who could otherwise never have traveled abroad—several had to apply for their first passport as a necessary condition for this “fairytale.” Ai designed clothes, suitcases, and other items especially for the participants, and—as dis- played in the papercut’s borders—also cut their hair in idiosyncratic fashion. The 1001 Chinese citizens were free to move around and do as they wished, except to leave the city; they were functioning both as spectators and part of an artwork. Their number correlated to another component of Fairytale, 1001 Ming (1368–1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644–1912) chairs that were installed in Kassel for the exhibition’s duration, shown in the upper right panel within the frame.
