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Why is so much art about the ‘refugee crisis’ so bad?

Even at a celebrity art gala you can don an emergency blanket and feel good about yourself. Hard political questions, not required.

By Jerome Phelps
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Ai Weiwei

Artist Ai Weiwei (centre-left) carrying a blanket symbolising refugee needs, in London 2015. PA Images/Frantzesco Kangaris. All rights reserved.The famous artist lies face-down on a Lesvos beach.

The beach, the pose, seem familiar from the initially shocking, now iconic image of the drowned boy Alan Kurdi. But the dead Syrian toddler is nowhere to be seen. Instead – look! – it’s Ai Weiwei!

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0