Oct 13, 2010: Ai Weiwei's Seeds

[xoxoxoBruce]

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.

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.



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.
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.