Beijing's "Bird's Nest" StadiumAi Weiwei, sometimes-controversial artist and designer of Beijing's Olympic Stadium, has announced his wishes to disconnect himself from his much-publicized creation. Ai had designed the "bird's nest" stadium with Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron, but is now having second thoughts. He has recently expressed his disapproval of the Chinese government's "tendency to use culture for the purpose of propaganda." (Ai spent his childhood years in China's remote Xingjiang province, where his father, the poet Ai Qing, had been exiled during the cultural revolution.)
What remains unclear is what specific event(s) prompted Ai's decision, since he has always been a critic of the state, and designed the stadium as a critic of the state. Whatever the answer, in this case the "art for art's sake" mode of thinking doesn't cut it anymore.
