Exhibit by dissident chinese artist ai weiwei explains why. Sunflower seeds is a vast sculpture that can be gazed upon from. Yet ai remembers the sharing of sunflower seeds as a gesture of human compassion, providing a space for pleasure, friendship and kindness during a time of extreme poverty, repression and uncertainty. Focus moments include his international breakthrough in the early 2000s, his porcelain sunflower seeds at the turbine hall of the tate modern, his response to the sichuan earthquake of 2008, and his police detention in 2011. In this video ai weiwei gives insight into the background and production process of one of the most spectacular exhibitions of 2010, sunflower seeds at tate modern. Ai weiweis sunflower seeds visual culture in communist. Hundreds of individuals had therefore been hired to produce by. Sunflower seeds art installation by ai weiwei britannica. For ai wewei the act of individuals voicing opinions and communicating with one another is of great importance. The layers of seeds, though simple in form, embody multiple meanings.
Artist ai weiwei sows seeds of support for striking cambridge staff according to the striking university staff, the acclaimed sculptor and human rights activist. Sunflower seeds by ai weiwei on curiator, the worlds biggest collaborative art collection. Chinese artist ai weiwei has covered the floor of the turbine hall at tate modern in london with more than 100 million individually handmade replica sunflower seeds. In the modern and contemporary art context, infinite incremental repetition in art is a direct result of the industrial revolution. Ai weiwei sunflower seeds essaytyper ai weiwei s unilever series commission at tate modern, sunflower seeds, is made up of millions of handcrafted porcelain seeds. Ai weiwei multilingual edition multilingual hardcover june 4, 2019.
Ai weiwei, one of chinas leading conceptual artists and an outspoken social commentator, has carpeted tate moderns turbine hall with millions of porcelain sunflower seeds, each intricately handpainted. Ai weiwei answers your questions tateshots youtube. They filled the enormous turbine hall at tate modern, an industrial building turnedcontemporary art space. Early activism and sunflower seeds 100 million handpainted porcelain sunflower seeds, which were produced by some 1,600 chinese artisans. For sunflower seeds 2010 at the tate modern, he scattered 100 million porcelain seeds handpainted by 1,600 chinese artisansa commentary on mass consumption and the loss of individuality. A young girl sits down on ai weiwei s porcelain sunflower seeds in tate moderns turbine hall. Until the exhibit was roped off because of a feared health hazard, ai had encouraged visitors to walk upon the seeds, considering the fragile sculptures a metaphor for the downtrodden chinese populace. Deposited dead centre in the gardiner museums thirdfloor exhibition space, in a mound hiphigh, is a pile of porcelain sunflower seeds by chinese dissident artist ai weiwei. Ai weiwei has said that he chose to reproduce sunflower seeds in porcelain because during the famine years under mao they were one of the few reliable sources of. The power of quantity in ai weiweis sunflower seeds.
Follow the artist to the city of jingdezhen in northern jiangxi, china, where all of the sunflower seeds have been individually handsculpted and handpainted. Temporary installation at tate modern click to select the cover image for this artwork. Tate modern today unveils the latest commission in the unilever series, sunflower seeds, by the renowned chinese artist ai weiwei. The thinking behind the work lies in far more than just the idea of. Leader mao zedong would often represent himself as the sun, and the people of china as seeds on sunflowers in artworks. Altogether, the seeds weigh about 10 tons, and can be configured in two ways. During the cultural revolution, when ai weiwei s father and the whole family were forced into exile, they mostly lived from sunflower seeds. Ai weiweis sunflower seeds is an installation made up of 100 million handpainted porcelain sunflower seeds. So were meant to believe that in any socialist society the only pleasure you can expect is in a pocket full of sunflower seeds. Through his installation the chinese dissident artist transmits a variety of meanings to the audience, ideological values and beliefs of different levels. Essay on sunflower seeds by chinese artist ai weiwei. His infamous coca cola vase 1994 is a han dynasty urn emblazoned with the ubiquitous softdrink logo.
In 2011, ai weiwei s sunflower seeds 100 million of them were poured into the turbine hall at tate modern. As an activist, he calls attention to human rights violations on an epic scale. What do our increasing desires, materialism and number mean for the future. In a country where free speech is not recognized as a right, the police have beaten him up, kept him under house. Although they look realistic, each seed is made out of porcelain. One of ai weiwei s most famous political works is titled kui ha zi, or sunflower seeds. The sculptural installation appears at first to be a vast, flat landscape of sunflower seed husks, covering the east end of the turbine hall.
Ai weiwei, kui hua zi sunflower seeds article khan. Ai weiwei is an activist, architect, curator, filmmaker, and chinas most famous artist. Thousands of handpainted river crabs will appear at the only canadian showing of ai weiwei. The politics of display the tate modern and ai weiweis. It is a commentary on the mass production techniques that china caters to western countries. The chinese artist ai weiwei, with his sunflower seeds exhibition, has set a mindtwisting game in the tate modern in which sensorial stimulus and cognition processes are confounded into a single operation repeated millions of times. Ai weiwei article about ai weiwei by the free dictionary. Follow sunflower seeds on its remarkable journey from conception to delivery, and hear the artist talk about his unique sociopolitical. Lennart preissap in late 2010 ai was notified that a studio complex in shanghai that he had recently built at the invitation of the citys mayor was scheduled to be razed. Exhibit by dissident chinese artist ai weiwei explains why size matters open this photo in gallery. Sunflower seeds in 2010 ai filled the enormous turbine hall of londons tate modern with exactly 100,000,000 porcelain sunflower seeds, each made by a craftsman from the chinese city of jingdezhen. Ai grew up in the far northwest of china, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his fathers exile. Ai s father was the chinese poet ai qing, who was denounced during the antirightist movement.
Ai weiwei definition and meaning collins english dictionary. Ai weiwei han jar overpainted with cocacola logo 1994. Ai weiweis sunflower seeds in new gardiner museum exhibit. Ai weiwei s sunflower seeds at the tate modern photo by dean nicholaslondonist ai weiwei, internationally famed artist and chief provocateur of the chinese art. The sunflower seed is a common street snack in china, an everyday object from the artists. In order to maintain and preserve the landscape as a whole, tate asks visitors not to touch or remove the sunflower seeds. Description sunflower seeds by ai weiwei, tate modern turbine hall. Ai weiwei, kui hua zi sunflower seeds article khan academy. This photo was taken on october 12, 2010 in blackfriars road, london, england, gb, using a panasonic dmcfz18. The sunflowers were the metaphor for the obeying masses as sunflowers do not choose. As a matter of fact, this strategy is not only used by ai weiwei.
Ai weiwei is the most famous chinese artist living today. With all due respect to ai weiwei, as hes a magnificent artist, and certainly his family suffered greatly, hes confusing what he went through in china with something that china was decidedly not. He is the son of poet ai ching ai ching or ai qing, pseud. Ai weiwei spreads a sunflower seed carpet at tates. If youre behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains. Ai weiwei has said from a very young age i started to sense that. Ai weiwei s unilever series commission, sunflower seeds, is a beautiful, poignant and thoughtprovoking sculpture.
They may either be displayed as a large rectangle, contained by walls on three sides, or as a sculpture, achieved by pouring the seeds from above onto. Ai weiweis unilever series commission, sunflower seeds, is a beautiful, poignant and thoughtprovoking sculpture. Ai weiweis sunflower seeds visual culture in communist china. The thinking behind the work lies in far more than just the idea of walking on it. Ai weiwei in front of his installation sunflower seeds at the tate modern in london, october 2010. After studying painting in france 192932, where he discovered realist literature and was particularly influenced by the belgian poet. Ai weiweis unilever series commission at tate modern, sunflower seeds. Previously ai has created imitation fruit, clothes and vases. Weiwei s frequent confrontations with the law make his artwork truly representative of the politics of dissent.
For many among its audience, the installationa vast field of lifesize porcelain seeds appeared from a distance to be made not of real husks but of carefully raked gravel or chippings. From october 2010 to may 2011, visitors to his piece sunflower seeds. The piece is made up of exactly 100 million replica sunflower seeds, hand cast and painted by the people of jingdezhen in the jiangxi province in south beijing. Open in his criticism of the chinese government, ai was famously detained for months in 2011, then released to house arrest. In 1958, the family was sent to a labour camp in beidahuang, heilongjiang, when ai was one year old. Moreover, in the age of rapid communications, his message of dissent bleeds into the international arena. Kui hua zi sunflower seeds is an art installation created by contemporary artist and political activist ai weiwei. Interpretation text relating to the ai weiwei unilever commission at tate modern 20102011. Sunflower seeds is an installation of the famous contemporary chinese conceptualist artist ai weiwei 1957 first opened in 2010 in the turbine hall of london contemporary art gallery tate modern. It is difficult to gauge whether ai weiwei anticipated the initial impact of the largescale commission sunflower seeds 2010 in the gray volume of tate moderns turbine hall. The seedbed, sunflower seeds, is a vast field composed of tons of black, white and gray seeds, spread smooth and flat in an enormous, 4,000 squarefoot rectangle with thickly beveled edges. Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples log in. The sculptural installation is made up of what appear to be millions of sunflower seed husks, apparently identical but actually unique. Its weiwei s third piece of work to debut in des moines, following his kui hua zi sunflower seeds project in 2009 and selfportrait in lego in 2017, both on display at the art center.