The Unilever Series: artist Ai Weiwei at the Tate Modern in London

So the full title is ‘The Unilver Series: Ai Weiwei: Sunflower Seeds 2010’

Phew! Underneath the cumbersome title is a work of great artistic merit & simply unbelievable human achievement, read on…

It may appear that the Turbine Hall has been scattered with tonnes of Sunflowers Seeds but in fact each seed is a unique hand-crafted replica of a sunflower seed husk and has been hand made by small teams of artists in Jingdezhen, China to be exact.

What also is breathtaking is that there are supposed to be 100 million of them!

Artist Ai Weiwei invites us to look more closely at the cheap mass production the west may associate with China & the social, cultural & political implications of such mass marketed goods over the years.

Finally it seems things are paying off now with China’s expanding wealth, will that effect your visit to the exhibition and how you reflect on it?

These 100 million unique porcelain pieces form Ai’s latest sculptural masterpiece.

Admission is free & runs from 12 October 2010 – 02 May 2011

Links
The Tate
The Daily Telegraph
www.visitlondon.com