Ai Weiwei and the Art of Keeping Your Mouth Shut
Hyperallergic reviews Ai Weiwei’s book On Censorship (2026), which reflects on censorship and self-censorship through the dissident Chinese artist’s experiences of state persecution. The article recounts that Ai’s father, poet and activist Ai Qing, was sent to a labor camp, and that Ai Weiwei later faced exhibition cancellations, surveillance, and an 81-day detention without charge in 2011 before living in exile. It also cites a November 2023 incident in which Lisson Gallery canceled Ai’s London show after he posted about Israel’s war in Gaza, using it as an example of how censorship can operate in Western contexts through institutional pressure and self-censorship. The piece argues that Ai frames censorship as socially corrosive and warns that fear-driven self-censorship can erode creativity and public moral life.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Biennales in Flux, Institutions Under Pressure