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The Chinese government shutdown Ai Weiwei's self-surveillance project commemorating the year anniversary of his own arrest, so we thought we'd look back at what the Chinese artist has been up to since the government put him under house arrest. After his release from detention last June, the Chinese government continued its watch of Ai Weiwei, putting him under constant surveillance and house arrest. As a commentary on all the surveillance in his life, Ai Weiwei installed his own set of cameras in his home, kind of like a We Live in Public thing. "In my life, there is so much surveillance and monitoring" he told the Agence France-Presse (by way of CNN). "So I was wondering, why don't I put some (cameras) in there so people can see all my activities. I can do that and I hope the other party (authorities) can also show some transparency." The Chinese government promptly shut that experiment down, leading us to wonder, what has the government permitted the artist to do while under constant watch?
Art
Even under house arrest, Ai Weiwei has continued creating. As early as the beginning of July, a Swiss gallery owner who worked with the artist said he was back at work, noted The New York Times. Unable to leave the country, the artist did a Skype collaboration with W magazine, to create a photo shoot of Rikers in October. He's also working with Swiss architect Peter Zumthor to design a pavilion for the London Olympics this summer. His works continued in exhibition around the world, the artist appearing in a Martin-Gropius-Bau museum exhibition called “ARTandPRESS” and at the Asia Society, for example. And he continued selling works, with the Tate Modern buying 8 million of the 100 million pieces of the artist's Sunflower Seeds installation.