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Ai Weiwei Sunflower Seeds Analysis

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Does Ai Weiwei’s “Sunflower Seeds” reflect the social, political and economic status of China?

Justin Boon
ARTH-271
Professor Farris
Fall 2014
Does Ai Weiwei’s “Sunflower Seeds” reflect the social, political and economic status of China? In order to understand his work, we must first understand Ai Weiwei as an artist, his other works, as well as the inspiration and motivation behind them. We must also understand China as a country and its political climate in order to ascertain a degree of truth. Ai Weiwei is a conceptual artist, architect, designer, and social commentator whose works invariably carry an ironic charge. His “performance”, in effect, is his life. He is the son of the famed poet Ai Qing, who was sent into provincial exile during …show more content…

It was commissioned for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall and it opened in Octobor 2010. To give some sense of scale for this work, it consists of over 100,000,000 seeds with a total weight of 150 tons. The scope of the work alludes to the way mass production functions and what it truly means to produce in a massive quantity. The work is visually impressive, with a depth of ten cm covering the Turbine Hall. It has a sense of silent power, the viewer can feel the presence of the immense number of seeds and yet the space is otherwise untouched. It is akin to viewing the entire expanse of a forest from afar. Initially the viewers will recognize that they are sunflower seeds, but they soon start to realize that nothing can grow from these seeds because they are artificially hand-painted by people. One might draw a parallel to Duchamp’s “Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?” It is a birdcage containing what looks like sugar cubes, but are actually marble cubes. You realize it when you attempt to lift the cage and it is too heavy. What you see is not what you think, it is more than

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