Tate’s eleventh Unilever annual commission for the Turbine Hall, was a work by one of China’s greatest artists Ai Weiwei, (b.1957, Beijing).
Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of small works, each apparently identical, but actually unique. However realistic they may seem, these life-sized sunflower seed husks are in fact intricately hand-crafted in porcelain.
Ai’s multiple roles as conceptual artist, curator, publisher, self-taught architect, public intellectual and Internet-champion, reflect on today’s society, using himself as an example to encourage individual responsibility. His work often uses a traditional formal language and classical methods of craft and production in China to encourage reflection on the geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today. He is in conversation with Katie Hill, curator and Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Chinese Art.
