Last week, a Chinese court rejected artist Ai Weiwei's lawsuit against the tax bureau that had imposed a massive fine on his company. Ai was fined more than
$2 million after being detained for three months last year.
This marks yet another political struggle for Ai, who is famous abroad for his art and has emerged as a leading Chinese dissident, a voice for individual
freedom. A year after being released, Ai is still monitored heavily by officials, although he uses his Twitter feed to continue criticizing China's
government.
Filmmaker Alison Klayman was an intern on NPR's All Things Considered before she left for China, where she wound up chronicling Ai on video. The result is a
documentary — her first film — called Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, part of which chronicles Ai's crusade to seek justice for an alleged police beating.
That run-in with police came as a result of Ai's support for the victims of the Sichuan earthquake, part of which manifested itself in a Munich installation
where Ai spelled out a Chinese phrase using colored school backpacks that represented the child victims.
Ai is known for his large installations and designs. Another of his famous works is Sunflower Seeds, for which he and 1,600 assistants handcrafted 100
million porcelain sunflower seeds and spread them on the floor of London's Tate Modern. Ai also designed Beijing's Olympic Stadium, know as the Bird's Nest.
Klayman spoke to NPR's Robert Siegel about her movie and Ai, who she says sees no separation between what we would consider his art and his confrontations
with authorities.
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