China’s most influential art figure is missing. Detained, likely, in a state facility, flipping off everyone who walks by him. His fame and accolades can now do little for him. Even a statement by Secretary Clinton is met with silence from the government that has detained Ai Wei Wei. His 100,000,000 porcelain seeds sit as silent as he does in Turbine hall at the Tate. As it stands, there are now 100,000,001 silent porcelain seeds waiting to be heard.

Ai Wei Wei is no stranger to draconian treatment. His father Ai Qing, arguably one of China’s finest modern poets, was sentenced to exile from 1958 to 1979 in the Gobi desert. This is where Wei Wei spent most of his childhood, an struggle he recounts as “experiencing humanity before I should.” This sort of early exposure to governmental punishment through censorship did not reduce Wei Wei’s ability to express his dissent in any manner of speaking. Aided by the internet, he has expressed his disgust and distaste for a variety of propaganda-laced initiatives that have influenced his work. Basically, he is an irritant to the government of China. His email has been hacked, his blog shut down, and yet again, Ai Wei Wei has been arrested. Sadly, no one knows where he is.

Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995)

Ai Wei Wei is a figure whose definition expands the more you learn about him. Beyond fine art, he has merged the Vinn diagram that shows his life and work completely, so that there is simply a circle containing both with full overlap. His political statements are his art, and vice versa. And yet, he remains, resolutely culturally Chinese, a dissenter of his own homeland. Silenced by the government that placed the bitter taste in his mouth as a young boy. In fact, Ai Wei Wei is a product of Communist China, a product that refuses to be shaped by its maker.

As a figure, Wei Wei’s importance is likely not fully realized. One of his photographs, seen above, is a perfect example of the magnitude of his catalogue of work. Here, he drops an ancient Han dynasty vase and destroys it in a trio of images. An artist destroying priceless cultural treasures. Interesting point-of-view. But consider the cultural treasure is a measure of your nationhood, a symbol of why your country is special. During the Han dynasty and throughout history China called itself the “Middle Kingdom” – as it was regarded as the center of the universe. The mind set that China was the undisputed supreme Kingdom was overwhelming. Ai Wei Wei crushes that thought in a single moment, and holds his hands up carelessly as the history & supremacy of China lays at his feet.

It is difficult to assign equivalents in American culture because we don’t have a 5500-year history book to draw from. Let’s say it’s an amplified measure of dissent, in the highest.

Beyond his work, Wei Wei uses his words to express his sentiments, often with global implications. After working as the artistic consultant for the design of the Birds Nest Stadium for the 2008 Olympics, Wei Wei distanced himself from the project stating “I’ve already forgotten about it. I turn down all the demands to have photographs with it,” and later address statements to Steven Spielberg and the choreographers of the opening ceremony by saying “It’s disgusting. I don’t like anyone who shamelessly abuses their profession, who makes no moral judgment.” Spielberg later withdrew from the project as well.

Why would Ai Wei Wei then engage in these projects or even live in the country that he apparently despises so? Probably because he loves it. It seems clear to me that Wei Wei is interested in the prospect of a more reasonable and rational China, and is optimistic about its progress. In addition to loving the country that he is active against, he also cares deeply for setting a stage for dissent. He told the Guardian “And I also have to speak out for people around me who are afraid, who think it is not worth it or who have totally given up hope. So I want to set an example: you can do it and this is OK, to speak out.”

Given the current state of Chinese censorship on the internet and within its borders, it is not surprising to see why this man has been detained. The worrisome variant in this instance however is that his whereabouts are unknown. If he is released I hope he leaves the country and works abroad so that he can continue to create his dialogue of dissidence without fear of incapacitation and exile. China needs his voice, as we need all voices. In fact China is less defined without Ai Wei Wei, which is the case with any opposing forces. The black defines the white, the foreign defines the local, and the alternative thought defines the status quo.

Let us have Ai Wei Wei back. He has 50 more years of incredible left in his bones. If you (China) send him back to the Gobi where his father was exiled I swear to Han that I will come over there and bust him out with a team of angry artists, and you will never hear the end of it.

Ai Wei Wei’s last tweet:

一小时前来了一批警察出示搜查令，来到艾未未工作室草场地发棵258号，带走了8个工作人员至北京朝阳区南皋派出所问话：徐烨，钱飞飞，董姐，小伟，小谢，邢锐，蒋立，小胖侄子。路青一人与警方在家，现在工作室前后门均有警察，无法进出。艾未未在北京机场已被扣押3小时，无法联系。（未未助手）

An hour to go, a number of police present a search warrant, went to Ai Studio to send 258 trees, took eight staff to the Beijing Chaoyang District police station for questioning Nangao: Ye Xu, Qian Feifei, Sister Dong, Xiao Wei, a smallXie, Xing Rui, JIANG, chubby nephew.
Road Green at home with the police, the police now have the studio and back doors, can not access. Ai Weiwei has been detained at the Beijing Airport 3 hours, unable to contact.

Follow Ai Wei Wei on twitter – if you do not have Google Chrome translate the Mandarin, go to google.com/translate to  copy, paste & read his tweets.