The Tate Modern in the UK currently features an exhibit called “Sunflower Seeds,” created by a Chinese artist named Ai Weiwei. Sunflower seeds made out of porcelain and painted with liquid clay fill the room, much like a zen garden or a pebble beach. The seeds have a matte finish which gives them a natural, authentic look.
In actuality, Ai Weiwei can’t claim that he created these seeds. In a small town called Jingdezheng, 1,600 villagers worked to create these seeds. This town specializes in porcelain creation—their ancestors provided porcelain to the imperial family! Porcelain is a Chinese invention that is an important part of its culture. For centuries the Chinese have labored over creating pottery that served not only for practical functions but were also aesthetically breath-taking. Creating porcelain seeds is intensive work: stones are carried out from mining sites, the stones are pounded into powder, the powder is made into liquid form, the liquid is poured into molds, and the result: white porcelain seeds. The finishing requires the most workers: each seed is hand-painted with liquid clay, put into a kiln, sifted, washed, and then organized into bags for easier transportation. The 1,600 people who worked were all happy to be a part of Ai Weiwei’s project simply because it gave them business. The tasks of creating the seeds became take-home projects for many families.
Even though the laborers were happy, many may question if all that work was worth it: today, for safety reasons, people are not permitted to walk amongst these seeds. The artist intended for people to interact with these seeds, originally allowing them to run, sit, and even bury themselves in the 100 million seeds. Due to the dust that poses a health hazard, people can only look at these seeds from afar.
There are about 100 million sunflower seeds sitting in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern. Ai Weiwei’s purpose in creating art is to raise questions. Mao Zhedong, the leader of the Cultural Revolution in China, is often depicted in paintings with sunflowers. According to Ai Weiwei, those sunflowers represented people because the sun was their leader. His seeds are an interesting symbolization of the general population. I may feel unique, but in reality, I am just like a sunflower seed—one out of millions. A single seed or person may seem insignficant, but a sea of seeds or group of people will make a difference. There are also other issues that the sunflowers seeds are directed at, and more of his ideas is found here: LINK
I would love to see Ai Weiwei’s sunflower seeds, to hear the sounds they make, to feel the smoothness of each porcelain seed. Although there are safety concerns, it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to walk in art. (Besides, NYC air pollution isn’t too healthy either.) These sunflower seeds are very remarkable: just imagining a room filled with porcelain drops, each one given individual attention in its creation.
An Amazing Video: Here
Source: The New York Times
I heard these sunflower seeds, when stepped on, break..and can cause difficulty of breathing to many. I would love to see this/experience this for myself, but if it means getting an asthma attack or w/e, then i’m not so sure i would.
It’s smart of the museum to change the exhibit to only seeing it from a distance. It ruins what the artist wanted his exhibit to be, but it prevents people from attacking the museum with lawsuits
I guess it is god for the museum to only allow people to see the exhibit from a distance, but it would be so much fun to just run around in the seeds. I find it amazing that an entire village worked together to make so many tiny seeds. I took a ceramics class in high school, and making three molds of the same thing got boring, so I can only imagine how monotonous it could get making hundreds of those seeds over and over again.
Walking on the seeds would be a fun experience but the dust that I would breathe in does not seem very good. Instead of putting all the porcelain seeds together on the floor and making the views look from afar, maybe the museum could put them in nice transparent vases in a showcase or something so that people can look at it closer and see the detailed handcrafting.