Anish Kapoor creates 'Gangnam Style' video to support Ai Weiwei

Sculptor Anish Kapoor has created a "Gangnam Style" video to show his support for Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

By David Ng

Nov. 19, 2012 8 AM PT

Renowned sculptor Anish Kapoor has joined the “Gangnam Style” bandwagon with a new video that he is creating to show his support for fellow artist Ai Weiwei.

Ai made his own “Gangnam Style” video earlier this month. Kapoor told the BBC News that Ai’s video was pulled off the Internet in China and that “we’re hoping we will replace it.” Kapoor’s video has been shot but it hasn’t been posted online as of early Monday. Footage shot during taping, including an interview with Kapoor, can be viewed in the video below.

Kapoor enlisted the aid of some prominent British art-world figures, including artists Tom Phillips, Bob and Roberta Smith and Mark Wallinger, according to the Guardian. Choreographer Akram Khan also participated. In all, close to 250 joined in on Kapoor’s video.

“Gangnam Style,” by the South Korean pop star Psy, has become a global hit and inspired many imitations.

Ai has landed in trouble with Chinese authorities on several occasions due to his online activism. The artist, whose work is the subject of a career retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, was placed in secret detention for 81 days last year.

Kapoor told the BBC News that “Gangnam Style” lends itself “so well to political comment. This is about dissidents, all those people in the world who are imprisoned unfairly.”