Ai Wei Whoops!
↵ backOn Sunday, February 16, Maximo Caminero smashed a colored vase that is part of Ai Weiwei's "Colored Vases" project. This particular urn had been valued at approximately $1 million USD. He told reporters on the scene that he was inspired by Weiwei's earlier work "Dropping a Han-Dynasty Urn" in which the artist drops a two thousand year old cultural artifact in an attempt to elucidate the role of destruction in art and culture.
Three days later Ai responded to the incident: "Damaging other people’s property or disturbing a public program doesn’t really support his cause." Many art theorists are left to wonder if Weiwei ought to have exclusive rights to art vandalism. Considering the smashing of Ai's urn in the context of cyberspace helps to interrogate what role Benjamin's notion of aura plays in all of this. Would Ai take offense to the destruction of digital representations of his work, or is it the loss of material, valuable property that provoked his response?
From Tim Scheider's article on Ai Wei Whoops!: However, the defiance of traditional game standards in Ai Weiwei Whoops! ultimately leads to its greatest cultural relevance. To understand how, we must look not at Maximo Caminero’s decision to annihilate Ai’s sculpture in Miami, but at the greater ecosystem he intended to protest: the contemporary art world at large—which more than ever means the contemporary art market.
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Press
Online Game Lets You Smash Ai Weiwei’s Urns - ArtNet
This Vase is a Mirror - by Tim Schneider
Online Game Lets You Smash Ai Weiwei Vases - Hyperallergic
Σπάσε τα βάζα του Ai Wei-Wei ελεύθερα! - LIFO (Greek)
Smash All the $1,000,000 Ai Weiwei Vases You Want - Animal
This game lets you vandalize Ai Weiwei's urns without jail time - Kill Screen Daily
Now you too can smash Ai Weiwei's million dollar vases! - Shanghaiist
This Ai Weiwei Vase Smashing Game by Grayson Earle Is Addictive and Very Satisfying - Complex
Ai Wei Wei Vase Smashing Game is Very Satisfying - Oyster Magazine
Ai Wei Whoops Makes Vandalism Fun for Everyone - Miami New Times
Ai Wei Whoops! - by Lisa Adang