Sunflower Seeds

Ai Weiwei

艾未未

Production date
2009

Object Detail

Media
porcelain
Measurements
weight approximately 500 kg
installed approximately 150-160 cm diameter
Notes
Sunflower Seeds reveals Ai Weiwei’s engagement with traditional porcelain production. Five hundred kilograms of individually hand-painted porcelain seeds are piled on the floor, like the product of a rural harvest, re-creating the traditional snack shared by humble people in lean times. Astonishingly realistic, apparently identical, each seed is subtly different, symbolising the artist’s commitment to personal freedoms and human rights. Tiny, fragile, and apparently insignificant, each seed represents an individual, with their singular ambitions, hopes and fears. The sunflower seeds allude to a range of complex meanings. They recall the significance of ancient porcelain manufacture in Chinese trade with Europe. They may also be interpreted as a critique of mass-production and the millions of anonymous Chinese workers toiling in the factories of the Pearl River Delta, producing goods for distant markets. Heaped in a cone-like shape in the gallery space, the work resembles a Minimalist sculpture. Only on closer examination does the delicacy of each separate unit become apparent. The painted seeds also reference Maoist iconography: at the height of the cult of Mao, propaganda painters represented him as the sun and the Chinese people as sunflowers turning toward him.
Accession number
2009.001
Artist details