Ai Weiwei interview: Everyday objects that reveal the truth

As his new show opens, the acclaimed Chinese artist talks imprisonment, solutions, and making sense of the world. "Only in difficulties can we find ways to solve problems," he tells Precious Adesina.

Ai Weiwei is one of the best-known artists alive today. But asked recently when he first realised he wanted to be an artist, he responded: "Do I really want to be an artist? I'm still undecided." For anyone who has followed the Chinese contemporary artist-and-activist's 45-year-long career, such a response is unsurprising. While Ai has spent decades pushing the boundaries of art, questioning the practices of several institutions, and bringing social issues to the fore, he has always also offered a sense of provocation and humour.  

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Ai's oeuvre transcends mediums, having worked with sculpture, printmaking, photography, installation, writing, film-making and architecture. Ai Weiwei: Making Sense at London's Design Museum explores the 65-year-old artist's work through a design lens. "It will wrestle with what humans have made and continue to make; how they make; what they chose to keep and what to destroy," the museum's director Tim Marlow writes in the exhibition catalogue, noting that it will question "what all this reveals about our changing values socially, culturally, economically and, of course, politically." 

One of Ai's most famous pieces, a series of photographs titled Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn(1995), depicts the artist seemingly destroying a 2,000-year-old artefact. The images solidified Ai as the prolific iconoclast we know today. "As part of humanity, artists construct and deconstruct to create new definitions, constantly scrutinising and evaluating our value system and the possibilities of our existence," Ai tells  BBC Culture. "This is how I always approach problems, by standing on the opposite side of the issue, or even the opposite side of myself. I believe this measure is the most trustworthy one."

How have your personal experiences informed your work? 

To put it simply, everything I have done in the past, what I am doing now, and what I will do in the future is all directed towards one question: "who am I">window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'alternating-thumbnails-a', container: 'taboola-below-article', placement: 'Below Article', target_type: 'mix' });