Over 100 million ceramic sunflower seeds currently carpet a large section of Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall; uniquely perfect painted imitations, as if made by nature. Sunflower Seeds by Ai Weiwei is one of those works that can be conjured in the mind before it is seen with the eye.
Indeed it was just as described, yet disappointingly roped off to the public, at a distance of over a metre. A sign explains this is due to the danger of the inhalation of dust created by walking over the sculpture. But even with 20:20 vision it is impossible to appreciate the intricacies of each individual seed at such an inaccessible distance.
Due to this and in part due to the almost constant swarming crowds that have become an essential feature of Turbine Hall, the work struck me instantly as rather latent. May it not as well be millions of buttons or chocolate Smarties or those little stony bobbles found in office plant pots?
It is the accompanying elements of the installation, in the form of a 15 minute film and booth of interactive screens with webcams where the viewer can contribute to debates around the work, that partly answer this question.
The film eloquently details the journey of the sunflower seeds through 30 different processes of production in China, to their installment at Tate Modern. It quickly becomes clear that the very feat of their quantative and labour intensive manufacture is not necessarily the main feature of the work.
Neither, infact is its aesthetic impact or physical presence in Turbine Hall. Even the socio-political symbolism of the ceramic seeds pales in meaningful comparison when considering the implications and efforts of their collective production.
Ingrained in the skills of the people in this rural Chinese town is a legacy of ceramic manufacturing. Weiwei sought the traditional methods and techniques in making this work and in the process rekindled, if only for a short while, the fading fires of a specific cultural industry that has given work to whole families for generations.
Watching the men and women meticulously cast, shape, paint, fire, clean and pack the 100 million seeds that are now piled and raked to perfection in this monolithic gallery puts to rest all thoughts of treading them like gravel, or even why they are there at all.
Sunflower Seeds is at Tate Modern until 2nd May 2011.
Sunflower Seeds is at Tate Modern until 2nd May 2011.
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