Made In China
Sunflower Seeds, by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, is the latest work to fill the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, and the first by a non-western artist. One hundred million hand-produced and painted porcelain seeds carpet the floor. It is a beautiful, staggering sight, hard to comprehend in its vastness; offering a quiet counterpoint to the flash and bang Beijing Olympics, that other recent fete of Chinese mass production.
Crunching across the floor, the scene is at first most reminiscent of a busy, grey, gravel beach. Few spend long contemplating the individual seeds, rather some sunbathe; many take photos; some flick, kick and run across the seeds; some make angels on the floor; another group sticks a shoe into the seeds and lob seeds in from a distance. Even those of us with a more introverted disposition play games as we sift the seeds through our fingers. Litter begins to accrue as a couple of yogurt pots lie half submerged in the seeds. Over and again one woman patrols the edge with a broom pushing the scattered seeds back into place.
In a connected room, a short film shows the thirty stage process by which the seeds were produced and the people who crafted them. The town of Jingdezhen once made porcelain for the Emperor's Court but has since fallen on hard times. Many are unemployed or bankrupt. With 1,600 people spending over two years making the seeds this artwork became a major industry. Few in the town were unaware of this work, yet few knew what it was for.
Sunflower Seeds offers a poignant parable of our globalised world, Weiwei giving us the opportunity to recognise how we enjoy ourselves careless of others' expense. Idly crunching the handiwork of hundreds of people under our feet, we continue to search for ways to entertain ourselves. Many of us in the West have grown bored, consumerism dulling our appreciation of creativity.
Wandering the hall, reflecting on the work of these hundreds of people and the outsourced monotony that lies at the heart of capitalism, it was Chesterton's words that came back to mind with a new force and meaning:
"It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we."
Links
Visit the Tate Modern website to view pictures and read about the exhibition.
Comments
With globalisation, art may have assumed new rôles that Delacroix, Reynolds, Turner or Rembrandt did not foresee. Granted that abusing art for party politics is manipulative and debasing, the new awareness on the part of many artists has changed the content of their artistic communication. But we might go further back. Even Jesus and Paul used seeds in their stories of hope, growth, judgment and destiny. I am "old school" when it comes to enjoying visiual arts, and will visit the National Gallery every time I have a chance to see London. When one of my sons joins me, I can witness at the Tate how other expressions of art communicate with them much the same way the classical artists move me. God will not be left without a witness in any generation Arnold van Heusden The Netherlands
1,600 people for 2 years?! Wow. Having worked in a consultancy advising companies that source from China and having visited a number of factories to assess how well they treat workers (or not)... this is fascinating and really thought provoking... thank you
Why am I left feeling that thte Tate modern is part of the emperors new clothes. Who is kidding who. Why spend over 2 or 3 years and how many people making sun flowers seeds when you could have use the real thing. When art budgets are cut over the place and creativity from our Creator is debased. 13 billion pounds will be spent on a 2 week sports event. Who is standing with artists. Our people business need real creativity.
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Date:
2010-10-27 09:30:00
Author:
Nora Phillipson