Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei profanely mocks state power in new heavy metal music video
BEIJING, China – Two emotionless prison guards watch Ai Weiwei as he eats, sleeps, paces, showers — and even sits on the toilet — in the Chinese artist’s new obscenity-filled, metaphor-rich music video mocking state power.
The video accompanying the visual artist’s heavy metal single “Dumbass” is meant to reconstruct his 81-day detention in 2011, which was part of an overall crackdown on dissent. Ai’s subsequent conviction for tax evasion has been seen as punishment for his activism.
Ai has used his art to draw attention to injustices in China and the need for rule of law.
His music video released Wednesday depicts an insensitive, overbearing state power that ignores individual rights. The lyrics include obscene insults, and the images include animals that have become euphemisms for defiantly circumventing strict censorship.
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