Sunflower Seeds

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese artist, curator architectural designer, social commentator and an activist born in Bejiling. Ai was the one voted to be the artistic consultant on creating the Beijing National Stadium. He was also very the driving force of exposing an alleged corruption scandal in the construction of Sichuan schools that collapsed during the earthquake in 2008. Ai father was Chinese poet Ai Qing who was denounced during the Cultural Revolution and sent to a labor camp. Weiwei also spent five years there. In 1978, Ai enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy and attended the school with other Chinese directors. From 1981 to 1993, he lived in the United States, mostly in New York, doing performance art and creating conceptual art by altering readymade objects.

 

One of Ai Weiwei’s most famous pieces he has ever created was his installation of “Sunflower Seeds” at the Tate Modern Turbine Hall. The creations of all these seeds were done by 1,600 Chinese artisans in a town use to be known for their porcelain Jingdezhen. The Chinese workers created one hundred million hand painted porcelain each individually painted by the hard working men and women. When Ai created this work of art his ideas was for people to walk, stand or lay on the seeds to really be a part of the exhibit. But with the amount of people this exhibition brought and the porcelain seeds becoming dusty with all the people walking on them. Tate Modern had to ban people for health concerns from walking on the seeds, moving the crowds to see the exhibit from a viewing bridge.

- Conner-