Monday 15 November 2010

Skylines, Sunflower Seeds

On Saturday I walk from Waterloo, along the Southbank, past the second-hand book stalls near the BFI, past the National Theatre, to the Tate Modern. London is grey and cold, flat-looking. I am hoping to see the Gauguin, to immerse myself in bright colours, lush vegetation, exotic Tahitian women, but it is booked up until the evening so instead I wander through the Turbine Hall to Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds, part of the Unilever Series. One hundred million sunflower seeds stretch out across the vast hall, each one unique, hand crafted from porcelain.

I find it hard to comprehend the enormity of the project, the time, the patience.







12 comments:

  1. Wow! Those turbine hall exhibitions push things to the limit everytime! Will have to take a trip down there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Are you serious?! This is absolutely blowing my mind!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I would love to see the sunflower seeds, they look incredible. A long time ago, I used to live in Southwark and do miss being able to just pop into a gallery on a whim! x

    ReplyDelete
  4. lovely. i did that self same walk and explore just last week. it was heaven.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow, fantastic, it must be amazing to actually be in that space.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Like you say incomprehensible, just amazing.
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. My sister saw this too. It looks amazing! I can't imagine all the hard work that went into it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It is startling isn't it, awe inspiring. I do art, but this is beyond anything I could think to do.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I get an insane urge to walk barefoot through all those seed. Impressive!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wonderful photos. The seeds are amazing aren't they - a shame they had to change the original plan but pretty great nonetheless. That 3rd photo down in the seed pictures, with two layers of people cleanly separated from the display, is my favourite one. Art galleries are funny places really.

    ReplyDelete
  11. wow, what a crazy project!

    ReplyDelete