Self-Portrait 自拍

Creator(s)

• Wei-Wei AI

Preview

Date

1987

Format

Photograph

Exhibition Event Title

Ai Weiwei: New York Photographs 1983-1993

Materials

Black and White Inkjet Print

Description

This Photograph "Self-Portrait" was created in 1987, when Ai Weiwei was living in New York’s East Village. It is one of the more than ten thousand photographs taken by Ai Weiwei between 1983 and 1993, and was later selected and included in the series Ai Weiwei: New York Photographs 1983-1993. In the image, a bicycle wheel forms a circular frame enclose the artist’s head and body, creating an effect similar to a self-portrait with a photo frame. An ordinary bicycle wheel simultaneously becomes part of the photographic composition. Like many of Ai Weiwei’s other photographs from this period, the work serves as a record of himself while also presenting artistic ideas that gradually developed during his years in New York, such as the use of found objects. (Source: https://www.threeshadows.cn/cn/exhibitions/66-ai-weiwei-new-york-photographs-1983-1993/overview/) (Yida Du ’29)