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No photo credits available.
No photo credits available.
Ai Weiwei, 'The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei', 2010. Portrait photograph
Photocredit: Tate Photography
Ai Weiwei's mesmerising sea of porcelain sunflower seeds in the Tate Modern Turbine Hall is the perfect antidote to art overdose.
Come and wade through them, sit in them, or better yet lie on them to soothe an aching back and feet. While having this immersive, total body encounter with art, perhaps thoughts of the individual and the mass, the hand made (each one of these 100 million porcelain seeds is hand formed and painted by a team of 1600 artisans) and the industrially produced, the symbolism of sunflowers in Maoist China and their ubiquity in everyday China will waft into your head. And better yet – this is one of the rare contemporary art works that is child-friendly.
The artist, who says his work is ‘more and more involved with social justice and fairness’ and whose blog has been stopped by the Chinese authorities, sees this piece as a social sculpture and a form of communication. He invites viewers to tweet him about it on Twitter or post a comment in the internet booths in the Turbine Hall.
Until 2 May 2011
Tate Modern
Bankside
London SE1 9TG
www.tate.org.uk/modern
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