Zodiac: A Graphic Memoir

by Ai Weiwei, Elettra Stamboulis (Editor), Gianluca Costantini (Illustrator)

Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this beautifully illustrated and deeply philosophical graphic memoir, legendary artist Ai Weiwei explores the connection between artistic expression and intellectual freedom through the lens of the Chinese zodiac.

ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

As a child living in exile during the Cultural Revolution, Ai Weiwei often found himself with nothing to read but government-approved comic books. Although they were restricted by the confines of political propaganda, Ai Weiwei was struck by the artists’ ability to express their thoughts on art and humanity through graphic storytelling. Now, decades later, Ai Weiwei and Italian comic artist Gianluca Costantini present Zodiac, Ai Weiwei’s first graphic memoir.

Inspired by the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac and their associated human characteristics, Ai Weiwei masterfully interweaves ancient Chinese folklore with stories of his life, family, and career. The narrative shifts back and forth through the years—at once in the past, present, and future—mirroring memory and our relationship to time. As readers delve deeper into the beautifully illustrated pages of Zodiac, they will find not only a personal history of Ai Weiwei and an examination of the sociopolitical climate in which he makes his art, but a philosophical exploration of what it means to find oneself through art and freedom of expression.

Contemplative and political, Zodiac will inspire readers to return again and again to Ai Weiwei’s musings on the relationship between art, time, and our shared humanity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781984862990
Publisher:	Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed
Publication date:	01/30/2024
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Ai Weiwei leads a diverse and prolific practice that encompasses sculptural installation, filmmaking, photography, ceramics, painting, writing, and social media. Born in Beijing, China, in 1957, he is a conceptual artist who fuses traditional craftsmanship and his Chinese heritage, moving freely between a variety of formal languages to reflect on contemporary geopolitical and sociopolitical conditions. Ai Weiwei’s work and life regularly interact and inform one another, often extending to his activism and advocacy for international human rights.

Elettra Stamboulis is a Greek Italian writer and art curator. She has written numerous graphic novels and comics articles that have published in many languages around the world. She specializes in reality-based comics and has curated European exhibitions of the work of Joe Sacco and Marjane Satrapi. As a curator, her work is dedicated to the promotion of artists at risk and she recently has curated exhibitions of work by Zehra Doğan, Badiucao, and Victoria Lomasko.

Gianluca Costantini is an Italian cartoonist, comic journalist, and activist. He has contributed to numerous publications and is the author of several graphic novels. He is well known for his drawing related to human rights campaigns all over the world. He collaborates with organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists, ActionAid, and SOS Méditerranée. In 2019, he received the Art and Human Rights Award from Amnesty International.

Editorial Reviews

★ 01/22/2024

Chinese artist-activist Weiwei’s poignant, meditative graphic memoir debut opens as he speaks to his son about the past, and the “powerful men”—such as Mao Zedong—who “made decisions for everybody” during the cultural revolution, including what few books people were allowed to read. Weiwei interweaves his family’s story and that of his own development (and persecution) as an artist alongside Chinese fables and folktales as an act of resistance. Dividing the work into chapters named for the 12 signs of the Zodiac, Weiwei philosophizes through anecdotes (“You like speaking in metaphors,” says his partner and mother of his son) that unfold in understated yet intricately drawn black-and-white comics by Constantini. Among other memories, Weiwei recounts living in exile underground with his family as a child (“in a burrow dug in the desert”) and how his father, Ai Qing, an “enemy to the party,” first turned from painting to poetry while jailed. “An artist has to be the beginning of a story, not the end,” Weiwei opines, emphasizing the potential of art to connect people and ideas. “We must combat fear with the truth.” This is a sage and inventive embroidery of philosophy, family memoir, and cultural history. Agents: (for Weiwei) Peter and Amy Bernstein, Bernstein Literary. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

03/01/2024

Gr 9 Up—This graphic memoir is beautifully crafted. Structurally, it details the main characteristics of the 12 animal signs in the Chinese zodiac, and then presents ancient Chinese folktales that depict the theme of each animal. These Chinese folktales interweave with artist Ai Weiwei's life, including his family, imprisonment, and career during the Chinese Cultural Revolution era. Poets, teachers, and artists who were commonly accused and condemned during Mao's Hundred Flowers Movement are also illustrated in great detail. The narrative shifts back and forth through years of events, charting Weiwei's memory. Living in exile since he was a young child, with no formal education, and being restricted only to Chinese Communist Party–approved comic books all act to cultivate Weiwei's ability to express his thoughts and create art. VERDICT Readers will enjoy learning about the extraordinary life journey of artist Ai Weiwei. Recommended.—Anna Ching-Yu Wong

School Library Journal

★ 2023-10-13
The internationally renowned Chinese artist recalls a life of resistance and oppression.

In this graphic treatment of his life, with illustrations by Italian artist Costantini, Ai blends manifesto and fairy tale for an audience made up of his young son. The first lesson involves cats and mice, the former of which do not figure in the Chinese zodiac, while mice are recognized as resourceful and smart—if also pests. Ai recalls trapping mice to keep them away from the scarce grain that his family, in exile, managed to grow on unforgiving terrain. This memory occasions an aside about how those in power trap their subjects, and he honors murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in that connection. “Like the cats,” Ai writes, “we have to keep the door that we call freedom of speech and thought open.” That kind of sentiment will lead to trouble in a totalitarian regime, and such has been the case with the often-jailed artist. In one episode, a police officer who looks suspiciously like Xi Jinping admonishes him, “If you call yourself an artist, you are arrogant. You should say art worker. That is the Party’s idea.” The fairy tales have a political dimension at every turn, as when Ai tells of a white snake who becomes a human in order to marry a scholar, only to be betrayed by a false monk; he adds, “our false monk was that water snake, Mao Zedong.” Art is a struggle in any society where it’s not recognized, as during Mao’s reign. At the same time, “Art is wrestling with yourself.” Finally allowed to leave the country, Ai continues to resist the Chinese regime, closing with the pointed observation, “Any artist who isn’t an activist is a dead artist.”

A welcome introduction to the life and work of an exemplary artist.

Kirkus Reviews

Each chapter frames the artist’s take on traditional beliefs about the characteristics humans share with the 12 animals of the Chinese lunar calendar. Gianluca Costantini’s intricate line drawings pair with Elettra Stamboulis’s comic-bubble text to help expand Ai’s lifelong campaign for free expression to a new medium for a new generation.”—The New York Times

“Rich with metaphor, philosophical musings, and rebellious wisdom, the book is ‘comic’ in the classical sense—a work of komikos in which mirth and myth, commentary and critique are all combined, and tragedy is never too far off.”—Al Jazeera

“If Ai Weiwei’s Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads debuted as a public art installation in 2011 to challenge the monolithic view of Chinese history, then his thought-provoking graphic memoir, Zodiac, offers another shift, by focusing on his individual trajectory as an artist whose role is to resist the totalitarian state. In this context, Ai’s work and life are astutely reflected in the way he reinterprets the 12 animals that make up the Chinese zodiac.”—NPR

“As serious as Zodiac’s subject matter may be, the book remains playful, from the curlicue tails of the speech balloons to Ai’s own irreverent expressions that often break the fourth wall. It is not strict biography but rather a vivid journey touching on some of the central philosophies that drive him, along with memorable moments in his life. . . . The pages become windowpanes, casual glimpses into Ai’s daily life. His universe is delightful, filled with honest and heartfelt conversations, and imbued with kindness in spades.”—The Los Angeles Review of Books

“This inventive graphic memoir follows Ai throughout his life, exploring how he found his own voice and mission in a country where bucking the government’s approved modes of expression could be life-ruining.”—BookRiot

“Ai taps the potential of visual storytelling as well as the 12 Chinese zodiac signs to weave together a time-shifting narrative. Personal history, family stories, career moments, as well as broader reflections on freedom of expression and art as a conduit for exploring oneself intermingle through the book and not only offer insight into Ai himself but new perspectives on art and humanity as well.”—Artnet

“The internationally renowned Chinese artist recalls a life of resistance and oppression . . . A welcome introduction to the life and work of an exemplary artist.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Poignant, meditative . . . This is a sage and inventive embroidery of philosophy, family memoir, and cultural history.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher