This exhibition called 'Sunflower Seeds' is made of millions of small 'works' each almost identical. These porcelain seeds were each hand crafted in small scale workshop in China, (hence being almost identical) they were also painted by hand. The 100 million seeds that were seen during the exhibition formed a seemingly infinite landscape.
The artist, Ai Weiwei, used traditional methods to make these porcelain seeds, a method that has seen China excel in porcelain exports over many years. The exhibition was sealed off on the 22nd of October, so the public could not access the porcelain seeds as the dust from the seeds were causing visitors health issues.
The process of making these porcelain seeds could have been much cheaper and also much quicker if it was made by a mechanic process. But as mentioned above Ai Weiwei was adamant to have every single sunflower seed 'almost identical'. The idea of having each one hand made will undoubtedly ensure that they will be unidentical but at the same time look the same.
This is a great example showing how far designers/artists will go to ensure that their intended specifications are met. In my opinion this exhibition would not have been as impressive if the sunflower seeds were made by a mechanic process.
A video of the making process was also being played repeatedly throughout the day, this made the experience so much more excited. I felt more appreciation for the work, after watching this video.
Fantastic exhibition! 9/10
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