Why did ai weiwei drop the vase

The middle finger can supposedly be traced back to ancient Greece.

Ai weiwei moma

Not the actual appendage, of course, but the insulting gesture, which the philosopher Diogenes was said to have aimed at Demosthenes, an orator and statesman. In fact, the middle finger has been called one of the oldest insulting gestures known to humankind, stemming from its resemblance to a phallus.

You could say it’s appropriate, then, that Ai Weiwei turns it toward some of the oldest institutions in the world in his provocative and long-running photo series A Study in Perspective.

The Houses of Parliament.

Tiananmen Square.

Ai weiwei sunflower seeds

Ai weiwei exhibition new york

Ai weiwei museum

Ai weiwei moma

Ai weiwei, remembering

The White House. The Mona Lisa. The Eiffel Tower. Trump Tower.

Dropping a han dynasty urn

These are some of the icons condemned by Ai in A Study in Perspective. Each image is like a postcard from his travels, but overlaid with a stout middle finger. Captured on whatever camera he had to hand at the time, the pictures themselves have a simple, DIY aest