The artist vividly describes the hardship of the 10-year-old boy he was, living in a dugout with no electricity or running water. 'I only know the winter is so cold, the summer is so hot, we don't have enough food, we don't have water or light,' he says. His father, the poet Ai Qing, had been condemned as a 'rightist' and exiled. The family's art books were considered anti-revolutionary, and the young Ai Weiwei tore them up and threw them into the flames. 'Renaissance paintings with gold leaf, all the Impressionists: Monet, Degas, Manet, Seurat — I know all those names because I burned them.' He says he never imagined becoming an artist because 'artists were cursed.'
Nineteen years after his exile, Ai Qing was rehabilitated and became a leading literary figure. His son went to film school in Beijing before moving to the United States. In New York, he dropped out of study and lived through odd jobs, walking the city at night 'alone, like a wolf.' He taught himself art history by painting across a succession of styles. 'I did the whole of art history. I'm like a soldier training for battle,' he explains. 'I never lost my confidence; I was convinced I could do anything. My problem is that I never want to do anything!'
The interview accompanies his work 'Mushrooms,' currently displayed outside the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.