tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post2415055554087521059..comments2024-03-29T03:56:08.315-04:00Comments on johnshaplin: Weiwei's Conceptualism by Barnaby Martinjohnshaplinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post-15801673198818482652014-01-20T14:26:39.142-05:002014-01-20T14:26:39.142-05:00"Often my creative life has seemed like a lon..."Often my creative life has seemed like a long tunnel, dark and damp. And sometimes I wondered whether I could live through it. But I did!" - -- Ai Qing<br /><br />johnshaplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6130830332820181818.post-6975580248032034842014-01-20T14:22:44.431-05:002014-01-20T14:22:44.431-05:00Weiwei’s father Ai Qing, one of China’s most popul...Weiwei’s father Ai Qing, one of China’s most popular poets during the revolutionary era and friends with Mao, became a pariah and was exiled to the countryside where he was forced to clean toilets. He came home – a hole-in the ground-exhausted every night, covered in shit; he lost the sight of one eye and on several occasions he tried to commit suicide. Asked how his father survived that period, Weiwei said: ‘Every day my father put all his life into his job as a toilet cleaner, applying all his strength and intelligence to the demeaning task, meticulously laying the sand and cleaning the holes, and by the end everything would be immaculate, all the sand in place, Weiwei still says that this was the greatest gift his father gave him: the example that if one is always clear and precise in thought, always sincere, then even the most humble task, even a task you have been given to grind you down and humiliate you entirely, can be dignified and redeemed in the end.johnshaplinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17618981988062495637noreply@blogger.com