Ai Weiwei's Nude Art Photographs Cause Furor in China
Controversial Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is gathering a large amount of support against the government with fans posting nude images online.
China’s authoritarian communist government tried to imprison the artist and charged him with a $2.3 million tax bill over claims that his company, Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., owed back taxes.
Weiwei was forced to pay half of that last week so that his wife, who helps him run the company, did not end up in jail, according to CNN.
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His supporters, however, are saying that the bill is simply a cover-up, and that the charges have more to do with the controversial photographs that the artist made, where he poses in nude positions with four other women sitting on chairs, according to the Guardian.
The images do not appear to be of sexual nature, but the Chinese government is still outraged, especially considering Weiwei’s known criticism of the suppression of liberties in China.
Some of his supporters sent money to help him pay the rest of the large bill, but others are taking to social networking websites, such as Twitter, to lend their support in a more unique fashion – by posting naked photographs of themselves.
The images include full-frontal shots, and manipulated graphics of the artist’s head placed as a censor over genitals and breasts. One such image features nine women and one man all with “Ai-heads” covering their private parts.
One supporter, Wen Yunchao from Hong Kong, spoke to Reuters and expressed his opinion that the nude photographs are about freedom.
"The interpretation of people's naked bodies in itself is an individual freedom and a form of creative freedom. Also, we don't see any pornographic elements in (Ai's) photographs. So we are using this extreme method to express our protest,” said Yunchao to Reuters.
