Ai Weiwei Threw Paint Over His Well-Dressed Friends

The eternal fox in the hen house, Ai Weiwei, is stirring things up again. The controversial Chinese artist has thrown leftover paint all over his willing friends — all wearing one-off outfits from Comme des Garçons.

The whole project developed after V magazine invited Weiwei to create a do-what-you-want editorial spread for the magazine, dubbed Children of the Comme. All they sent the artist was a box of garments from 14 different designers — and they were all one-offs. Treating the painstakingly-crafted pieces as destructively as his famed painted vase series, Weiwei stood his dressed-up friends on a custom-made pedestal and threw paint over the garments — the same paint used in his 2006/2008 Coloured Vases work.

"Pouring a colour on an outfit creates a new condition for the design. It creates a midpoint between two conflicting ideas." Weiwei says in V. "Gravity and the shape of the clothes combine to create a unique moment. Using these cultural products as ready-mades celebrates and reinterprets the intention of creativity. I think this act shows my respect toward their creativity."

This isn't the first time Weiwei has collaborated with Commes des Garcons; the artist has previously worked with the label's Joffe and Rei Kawakubo on their Tokyo store design, but most notably created an installation of backpacks inspired by the children lost to 2008's Sichuan earthquake.

"It has always been an interesting and exciting experience. Rei Kawakubo is a person who has always supported and fostered unique ideas," Weiwei told V from Beijing (the artist cannot leave the country, with his passport confiscated and the focus of constant government surveillance). "For the last ten years, these 14 colours have existed in our studio colour chart for the production of Coloured Vases. It’s a complete coincidence that we had these 14 colours for exactly 14 outfits.”

Via Hyperallergic and V.

Images: Ai Weiwei.