Oct 26, 2012 Grass-Mud Horse Style
Ai Wei Wei is quickly turning into my favorite artist, mostly because of antics like this. This video has been touted as the famous Chineses artist’s “cover” of the (equally) famous Korean pop rap anthem-turned-mega-internet-meme-slash-American-radio-phenomenon “Gangnam Style” by Psy. Quite frankly, the song & the video have been remade, re-envisioned, re-interpreted, and referenced so many times, that it’s a challenge to locate the original video amongst all the others. Psy’s song & video deftly poke fun at Seoul’s answer to Beverly Hills, and the extravagant conspicuous consumption which stereotypically takes place there. Perhaps this helps explain why the song has taken off in the US, but I doubt it. I watch it for the great dance moves. So back to Ai Wei Wei. While the NY Times Lede Blog have claimed this is a cover video, it’s actually really just footage of Ai Wei Wei & friends using handcuffs and showing us their “Gangnam Style” dance moves, with the original song playing, and a few scenes from the original video spliced in for good measure. I mean, he’s barely even lip syncing. But it’s still great.