Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn, Ceramic Works, 5000 BCE-2010 CE (English and Mandarin Chinese Edition)

Glenside, PA: Arcadia University, 2010. Hardcover. VG. White boards with bw photographic image; black lettering on spine. Bright blue paper wrap around lower 1/4 of book. 126 pp. with mostly color images throughout. Text in English and Mandarin. Catalogue from the exhibitions held at Arcadia University in Pennsylvania, Museum of Contemporary Craft (Portland, Oregon) and at the V&A. This exhibition catalog/monograph from Ai"s first solo exhibition outside New York gives a comprehensive picture of this unconventional artist"s approach to the undoing of assumptions about rare and old ceramics, such as Ai Weiwei dropping a 2000-year old Han Dynasty urn. Whether it's his famous Coca-Cola vase (with the Coke logo painted over the ancient surface of the pot) or other violations of the surfaces of ancient artifacts, this is a clear expression of iconoclastic modernism. Includes the first English translation of an interview with Ai Weiwei and an essay by the Beijing-based critic, Philip Tinari. Additonal essays by Glenn Adamson, Dario Gamboni and Stacey Pierson. The isbn of this book is 9780976215448, which is also the isbn of another book titled "Jg a Film Project By Tacita Dean