Oct 13, 2010: Ai Weiwei's Seeds

xoxoxoBruce • Oct 13, 2010 12:27 am
Ai Weiwei is China's most famous artist, and a big dog in the world art scene. That's a good thing, because he's also a social commentator and activist, which is not a wise career choice in China. :rolleyes:

So he was invited to display at the Tate Modern's huge Turbine Hall, so he filled it with 100 million (100,000,000) sunflower seeds.
What? Is he an artist or farmer?
Artist, these seeds are made of porcelain, and hand painted.

Image

Yes, it took 1600 people, 2.5 years, to produce 100 million, 150 tons, of seeds.
The expected 2 million people who will come to see this, are urged by the Tate not to steal any... but I would. :blush:
When Ai Weiwei was asked if he had painted any of the seeds personally, he said he painted 4 or 5, but they were no good.

Nobody knows what he'll do with them, after they are shipped back to China in May. But since he was beaten by the police so badly he has a brain tumor, for protesting the corruption in building the schools that collapsed in the big quake, I suggest he build a seed shooter.
HungLikeJesus • Oct 13, 2010 12:48 am
It's equivalent to a giant bowl of fake fruit, I guess.
Gravdigr • Oct 13, 2010 3:45 am
I ain't a-goin' to one of them seedy art galleries.
ZenGum • Oct 13, 2010 6:34 am
Look at that huge room covered in seeds. Think about one hundred million.

Then remember there are 13 times more people in China than there are seeds in that room.

And for perspective, there are three times as many people in the USA, and 68 times as many on the whole planet.
Wombat • Oct 13, 2010 8:11 am
WOFTAM. Seriously, just think of the useful stuff that could have been done by 1600 people in 2.5 years. Grrr.
Hillrick • Oct 13, 2010 8:12 am
ZenGum;688099 wrote:
Look at that huge room covered in seeds. Think about one hundred million.

Then remember there are 13 times more people in China than there are seeds in that room.

And for perspective, there are three times as many people in the USA, and 68 times as many on the whole planet.


Aaawww man, but I hate people.....now my day is shot.
xoxoxoBruce • Oct 13, 2010 9:45 am
Wombat;688104 wrote:
WOFTAM. Seriously, just think of the useful stuff that could have been done by 1600 people in 2.5 years. Grrr.


The project employed 1600 people for 2.5 years, in China where the official unemployment rate is a little over 4%, but is rumored to be actually closer to 12%... of over a billion people. Plus the money, from Unilever, was contingent on producing an art installation for the Tate.

That turbine hall full of seeds is how we look at China, a blur of sameness. When actually there's all those seeds... uh, people, that are each unique.
Sheldonrs • Oct 13, 2010 9:54 am
Oh sure! When an "Artist" spills his seed on the floor, it's called innovative, when I do it, all I get is "Clean that up!!!".


;)
xoxoxoBruce • Oct 13, 2010 9:57 am
Your probably coming close to 2 million visitors by now, aren't you? ;)
BigV • Oct 13, 2010 12:08 pm
Freakin' trick sunflower seeds made of PORCELAIN? I thought corn nuts were bad--they are--but I'd break a tooth for sure around these.

Pretty amazing vision, even though each individual piece "seems" unremarkable, inconsequential. Your life is made up the same way. A LOT of little similar acts, over and over again, producing a whole that is a very different thing from the individual pieces.

...and the occasional broken tooth.
Cloud • Oct 13, 2010 12:44 pm
porcelain seeds? a couple hundred rock pigeons will clean that right up
Diaphone Jim • Oct 13, 2010 12:48 pm
Not sure about the length of the Chinese workday or workweek, but I think this figures to around 5 minutes apiece.
I wonder if they are signed.
Pete Zicato • Oct 13, 2010 2:42 pm
Diaphone Jim;688137 wrote:

I wonder if they are signed.

This seed professionally painted and packaged by 汉语/漢語 华语/華語 中文 (Bob)
Wombat • Oct 13, 2010 9:59 pm
xoxoxoBruce;688120 wrote:
The project employed 1600 people for 2.5 years, in China where the official unemployment rate is a little over 4%, but is rumored to be actually closer to 12%... of over a billion people. Plus the money, from Unilever, was contingent on producing an art installation for the Tate.

Yes it is good that all those people were employed; I still think they could have been employed to do something useful instead of wasting all that money and all their time on... aggregate.
xoxoxoBruce • Oct 14, 2010 1:12 am
What would you be having these folks do? And who's going to pay for it?

In 2001, Unilever created the Unilever International Schools Art Project (UISAP) that encouraged children to create an artwork on a theme related to The Unilever Series. The project was very successful and over 135,000 took part in eight years. However, April 2009 saw the end of UISAP and the introduction of a new and exciting art education project called The Unilever Series: turbinegeneration. Produced by Tate and sponsored by Unilever, it is the first online educational partnership that links schools and major galleries on an international level.

Students will share thoughts and ideas inspired by one of the world's biggest contemporary art commissions – The Unilever Series at Tate Modern in London. Each year the new commission will influence the project's theme.


I suppose the could have spent all that money, plus sponsoring Ai Weiwei's installation, on something more useful like killing Somali pirates, or neutering North American White Tailed Deer, but they didn't.
It's the golden rule... whoever puts up the gold, makes the rules. ;)
Sheldonrs • Oct 15, 2010 3:46 pm
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9IS50U00&show_article=1


LONDON (AP) - An art exhibition involving 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds has been closed to visitors because it is generating dust that is a potential health hazard, the Tate Modern gallery said Friday.
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei filled a giant hall at the London gallery with a 1,000 sq. meter (10,000 sq. foot) carpet of the imitation seeds, made by thousands of workers in China over a two-year period. Visitors were invited to walk across the surface when the show opened earlier this week.

But the gallery said Friday that the "enthusiastic interaction of visitors" was causing a dust cloud that could be harmful if inhaled over a long period.

It said visitors would no longer be allowed to walk across the seeds, though they can be viewed from a walkway above the hall.

The commissions in the huge Turbine Hall have become one of the most popular attractions at Tate Modern, a former power station that opened as a gallery in 2000 and draws 4 million visitors a year.

It is not the first time an exhibition there has caused mishaps. In 2007 three visitors tumbled into Doris Salcedo's "Shibboleth," a jagged crack running the length of the room.

Last year a man was injured in Polish artist Miroslaw Balka's "How It Is," which invited visitors into a pitch-black room.


Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
xoxoxoBruce • Oct 15, 2010 3:58 pm
Bummer, walking across, and running them through your fingers, is more than half the experience. Dashes my hopes one of the Brits would steal me one, too.

It's hard to believe something made in China would be toxic. ;)
casimendocina • Oct 16, 2010 4:07 am
xoxoxoBruce;688490 wrote:


It's hard to believe something made in China would be toxic. ;)


Very surprising.
xoxoxoBruce • Nov 5, 2010 2:28 pm
The artist and digital activist Ai Weiwei is currently under house arrest in his native China, according to the Guardian. Weiwei, who has embarrassed Chinese authorities on several occasions with his campaigns on sensitive issues, says he has been placed under house arrest until Sunday night because he planned to hold a party to mark the demolition of his newly built studio.
SPUCK • Nov 6, 2010 7:03 am
Good'ol China. Never a dull moment with the commies.
xoxoxoBruce • Nov 6, 2010 7:40 am
There shall be no party, thrown by any party, without the approval of the party.
Lamplighter • Nov 6, 2010 11:05 am
Somewhat off subject ...

A TV link to China just this morning included a Buddist Monk talking
about modern China having lost it's way from the old wisdoms.
He then did a large calligraphy of an old poem.
When asked what it said:

"Everything we see with our eyes has both good and evil, ugly and beauty"
"It is our heart that tells us the difference"

/Now back to OP...
xoxoxoBruce • Nov 6, 2010 11:36 am
Typical Buddhist Monk, keeps talking and says nothing, except you're on your own.
Pete Zicato • Nov 9, 2010 2:52 pm
xoxoxoBruce;693043 wrote:
Typical Buddhist Monk, keeps talking and says nothing, except you're on your own.

"And it is also said," answered Frodo: " 'Go not to the elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.' "
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