Sunflower Seeds
Large-scale installation by Ai Weiwei, commissioned by Tate Modern as part of the Unilever Series for the Turbine Hall, London, 2010. One hundred million hand-crafted porcelain sunflower seeds, each individually painted by 1,600 artisans in Jingdezhen, China, were spread across the Turbine Hall floor to a depth of 10 cm. Visitors were initially invited to walk on the seeds, but this was stopped after two days due to airborne dust. The work examines mass production versus individual craft labour, the iconography of sunflowers in Mao-era China, and the individual-collective tension in Chinese society.
Scholarly Significance
Anchor the Chinese contemporary / political conceptual art cluster with Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds — a major Tate Modern Turbine Hall commission examining mass production, individual labor, and political iconography.
Notes
- ·1,600 artisans in Jingdezhen worked for approximately two and a half years to produce the seeds.
- ·The initial invitation for visitors to walk on the seeds was suspended after two days when dust inhalation was identified as a health risk.
- ·The work raises significant questions about authorship, labour, and scale that are central to Ai Weiwei's practice.
- ·Jingdezhen has been the centre of Chinese imperial and later export porcelain production for over 1,000 years; the choice of location is historically deliberate.