Artists and Their Pets: Ai Weiwei
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei produces sculptural installations, architectural projects, photographs and videos. He is known for the frequently provocative and subversive dimension of his art, as well as his political outspokenness, which has triggered various forms of repression from Chinese authorities.
Ai lives with more than 30 cats in his Beijing studio. Offering him daily solace, he often posts pictures of them on social media. He has a profound connection to animals writing in a blog post, “The cats and dogs in my home enjoy high status; they seem more like the lords of the manor than I do. The poses they strike in the courtyard often inspire more joy in me than the house itself.”
