Art, Derivation, and Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese political activist and artist, probably most notable for his part in designing the 'bird's nest' stadium that hosted the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. A slightly less famous 'work' of his was on 'display' at a New York museum that consisted of thousands upon thousands of handmade porcelain sunflower seeds spread out on a floor.

Needless to say, he's a modern artist. I must confess to hating modern art, mostly because to me art is supposed to convey some kind of meaning or expression to the viewer, and it seems to me that the modern artist must be fairly self-absorbed to think that any viewer can divine what he meant from such expressions, or else he actually had nothing to say at all. If he were really interested in conveying something to the viewer, he would choose a different way of expressing himself. Traditional art is an intercourse -- while modern art seems like, um, an individual pursuit.

Anyway, that was exactly my initial reaction to these two pieces. Then I encountered this interview with The Economist.  It is a brief but fascinating critique on the Chinese situation well worth the time of anyone interested in the question.