Ai Weiwei
12 October 2010 - 25 April 2011
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| The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei, Sunflower Seeds, 2010
Photocredit: Tate Photography © Ai Weiwei |
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The Unilever Series 2010
12 October 2010 – 25 April 2011
Ai Weiwei, one of China’s leading Conceptual artists and an outspoken
cultural and social commentator, has undertaken the eleventh commission
in The Unilever Series.
Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of small works, each apparently
identical, but actually unique. However realistic they may seem, these
life-sized sunflower seed husks are in fact intricately hand-crafted in
porcelain. Each seed has been individually sculpted and painted by
specialists working in small-scale workshops in the Chinese city of
Jingdezhen. Far from being industrially produced, they are the effort of
hundreds of skilled hands.
Poured into the interior of the Turbine Hall’s vast industrial space,
the 100 million seeds form a seemingly infinite landscape. Sunflower
Seeds is a sensory and immersive installation, which we can touch, walk
on and listen to as the seeds shift under our feet. The casual act of
walking on the work’s surface contrasts with the immense effort of
production and the precious nature of the material. Porcelain is almost
synonymous with China and, to make this work, Ai Weiwei has manipulated
traditional methods of crafting what has historically been one of
China’s most prized exports. Sunflower Seeds invites us to look more
closely at the ‘Made in China’ phenomenon and the geo-politics of
cultural and economic exchange today.
www.tate.org.uk/modern |