ai weiwei: sunflower seeds at the tate modern

wow

dirk   10.13.10

Porcelain? What a bummer!

Babe Ruth   10.13.10

Really enjoy this.

jk   10.13.10

my mind is *poof*

kad00regel   10.13.10

Mr.Ai really shows his niubility

diver   10.14.10

this cool... like it!

xetsn   10.14.10

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.(Tate's text)

... WHY such an effort?
Why not real seeds?

Question   10.14.10

@Question

ai weiwei has manipulated the traditional methods of crafting porcelain, which has historically been
considered to be one of china's most prized exports, to explore the 'made in china' phenomenon and
the geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today. - end of quote.

only if you could finish reading it.

H&M   10.14.10

If this trash is not correctly disposed could kill birds that cannot distinguish between the real and the fake ones.

Andre Norris   10.14.10

relax it's art.

om   10.15.10

All over now. The public are banned from walking amongst the seeds. The dust kicked up was thick and pretty choking.

Mescaline   10.15.10

This situation reminds me of the childrens story 'the Emperors clothes' where is the 'ART' ?? - this would be just a very cruel and expensive joke if were not so blatently stupid and wasteful. Shame on the so called artist. Shame on the Tate. Unbelievable stupid!!

Cary from Montreal   10.16.10

ok, ok. till there will be slaves working for nothing ( and shut up!) there will be kind of art like that. ok thanks Tate.

misterfa   10.17.10

art is in contradiction with itself and cannot be appreciated by everyone if it seeks for truth.

jess   10.17.10

(Reuters)
- Chinese artist Ai Weiwei's installation in the giant turbine hall of London's Tate Modern gallery
has been closed off to the public over concerns that it is causing dangerous levels of dust.

"Sunflower Seeds," part of the high-profile Unilever Series which invites artists to fill the cavernous space
each year, consists of some 100 million individually made porcelain seed replicas, and visitors were invited
to walk across them.

"Although porcelain is very robust, the enthusiastic interaction of visitors has resulted in a greater than expected
level of dust in the Turbine Hall," Tate said in a statement.

"Tate has been advised that this dust could be damaging to health following repeated inhalation over a long period of time.
In consequence, Tate, in consultation with the artist, has decided not to allow visitors to walk across the sculpture."

The work has been seen as Ai's commentary on living in a densely populated country where individualism can be lost,
as well as his interpretation of the inter-connectedness of millions of people over the internet.

Even before the dust debacle, there were concerns that some members of the public were stealing the seed replicas.

db update   10.18.10

can you still go and see them?

my-garden-school   10.19.10

This is awful. What a waste of time.

A.C.   10.19.10

What a waste of time and energy.
everyone can make thousands of installations like this with lots of literature and hundreds of slaves. this is just meanigless.
seeds, condoms, bottles, this has allready been done.
Art from the past

.   10.19.10