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| 'Sunflower seeds 2010' by Ai Weiwei |
Your probably wondering what the big deal is, it's just an excessive amount of sunflower seeds inside a gallery. Well let us tell you something you might find fascinating, these aren't just any old 'Spitz', every single one of these - 100 million to be exact- are made out of porcelain and delicately painted by hand. The master mind behind the whole production is Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei. The entire project took over two years to complete with 1,600 artisans helping out with the manufacturing.
The idea behind
'Sunflower Seeds' was created to parallel the
growth of materialism, globalization and mass-production in China, and
the increasing impotence of the modern worker, creating meaningless
products for distant, demanding markets. The 'seeds' were manufactured by traditional methods in
the city of Jingdezhen, China, the major center for the production of Imperial
porcelain for over a thousand years. Weiwei has always been "fascinated by the
cultural traditions of materials and objects, and of porcelain in
particular—the survival of its artisan production, its supreme quality,
its early traditions of mass production and global export and the value
still invested in it as a cultural artifact in China today"
(John Jervis). The seeds were also symbols of the Cultural Revolution.
The installation was meant to be walked over, however after it's first few days in the gallery, it became a health concern due to possible inhalation of the porcelain dust and visitors were only able to look. This increased the sense of sorrow and stillness. "It reinforced allusions
both to ash, with its connotations of cremation, and to the fundamental
tensions between the individual and the collective in Chinese society,
as the field of seeds, seemingly identical yet each unique, laid
dormant."
(John Jervis)
The original installation, which was installed at The Tate Modern
Turbine Hall in London, UK., covered 1,000 square meters to a depth of
ten centimeters, but has since then been sold off in quantities. It's
most recent sale this past week was for one ton, from the original 150,
which was auctioned off and sold for $782,500!
Above is a close up of one of the 100 million handcrafted sunflower seeds. Pretty remarkable don't you think? Let's just hope that one of these doesn't accidentally end up in your next bag of 'Spitz'!
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
*John Jervis from mar/april 2011 Tate Modern
