Photos: Queen Sea Big Shark

on Sunday, Ryan, Adrian, Nial, Phoebe and I piled into a van and headed out to artist AI WEI WEI’s studio in the Jiading District of Shanghai to participate in his River Crab Feast. The Chinese word for river crab (和谐) is a homonym for harmony (河蟹) and people often use the word as an euphemism for Chinese censorship. (more background on the event here).

the event itself was peaceful, despite news that the artist had been put under house arrest the day before he was scheduled to fly into Shanghai from his home in Beijing. there was no police presence, and instead, a gathering of people old and young who were served a meal of rice, bread, vegetables and river crab and invited to have a look around the space. interestingly, the only work we saw of Ai Wei Wei’s was an extension of his installation from documenta, which served as actual bedding for the volunteers and out of city visitors.

there were hoards of photographers, as well as many people live-updating via twitter and weibo (the Chinese version of Twitter). additionally, anyone with a twitter account was given a ceramic sunflower seed, which you may remember from the recently shut down Tate Modern exhibit. all in all, it was a pretty great day – there were many older people who came in support of various government injustices (we met a few who had been evicted from there homes) and there was even someone holding a sign commemorating Myamar’s first official election in 20 years, which fell on the same day as the crab fest.

note – Ai Wei Wei has been released from house arrest as of this morning, according to various news sources. also, an open letter from Ai Wei Wei to the Guardian linked here.