Bronze Sculpture for Sale
Porcelain Sunflower Seed, 2010
Sculpture : ceramic · 22.9 x 22.9 x 1 cm 9 x 9 x 0.4 inch
€213
213 €
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Shipped from: United States
Delivery to: France , € 32
Estimated delivery: Less than one week
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Verified Reviews : 9.6/10
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About the artwork
Type
Sculpture : numbered and limited to 50 copies
2 copies available
Condition
Artwork sold in perfect condition
Authenticity
Sold with certificate of Authenticity from the gallery
Invoice from the gallery
Signature
Artwork signed in the mold
Technique & Support
Dimensions ( cm • inch )
22.9 x 22.9 x 1 cm 9 x 9 x 0.4 inch Height x Width x Depth
Sold by
Art gallery
Credentials
Vetted seller since 2025 • Top Seller
Description
Medium: Hand-painted porcelain sunflower seed from the artist's infamous exhibit. Comes mounted on white with black hardwood frame. Also includes show flyer.
Provenance: Hand-numbered on back with unique holographic decal. Signed in the plate on front. Includes show card with information about the exhibit. Gallery certificate of authenticity also included.
Edition: Limited Edition of 50
Ai Weiwei initially conceived 'Sunflower Seeds' for his Unilever Series commission at Tate Modern's Turbine Hall, opening in October 2010. Ai Weiwei's take on the large hall was simple and complex, poetic and disturbing at the same time: He filled the Turbine Hall with a thick layer of sunflower seeds handcrafted in porcelain, a total of 100.000.000 seeds, with a total weight of 150 tons.
Like Ai Weiwei's other works, 'Sunflower Seeds' is a work closely related to the society, politics and economy in China, and also a project that can be accomplished only in this country. It alludes to the globalization and mass production in China that caters to western consumerism, and to the deemed insignificant element at the bottom of the production chain - thousands of cheap labors, assembly lines in gigantic factories, and tedious procedures. Absurdly, 'Sunflower Seeds' provided work for 1,600 artisans in Jingdenzhen, a fact that is an ironic reflection of the social reality.
Employing diverse media and techniques, as well as dexterity, wit and humor, Ai Weiwei has been creating "social sculptures" rooted in contemporary Chinese society. In 'Sunflower Seeds', we can also get a glimpse of the relationship between the individual and the collective implied in 'Fairytale' (2007), the adapt inheritance of traditional techniques in 'Through' (2007-08), the symbolic and metaphoric appliance of materials in 'World Map' (2006), and his influential outspoken publicity through the social network. Ai's deft transforming of local resources into a both poetic and provocative statement of contemporary art intelligently and audaciously subverts the tradition and encourages the reform. 'Sunflower Seeds' expresses Ai Weiwei's responsibility as an artist, “Seeds grow...The crowd will have its way, eventually."
Presentation
Born in 1957 in Beijing, Ai Weiwei is a multidisciplinary artist who is a sculptor, blogger, architect, and curator. He studied film at the Beijing Film Academy and then at Parsons The New School for Design in New York. The artist lives and works in Beijing but has lived in the United States for several years. In the early 1980s, he moved to New York to photograph scenes of daily life , capturing the habits and lifestyles of its inhabitants. He returned to Beijing to continue this practice in 1993. Through his work, he succeeds in painting a portrait of a country and its population by reflecting daily life as well as the morals and customs of societies. Weiwei is a major artist on the contemporary art scene. His work is vast, nonconformist, provocative, and has earned him reprisals. Arrested by the Chinese government in 2011 for tax evasion, it was more for his activism and his criticism of Chinese society. He has contributed significantly to the evolution of his country's social reality; his art is a testament to his perception of the world and its challenges. He uses social media to disseminate his positions, via Twitter or his blog, by publishing photos and texts, and thus manages to reach a broad population with his numerous followers.
A politically engaged artist, he joined the avant-garde artists' collective "The Stars" in 1979 and thus promoted liberal values centered on freedom of expression and man as an individual in his own right, thus opposing the Socialist Realism promoted by the State. He draws his inspiration from artists such as Duchamp or Warhol , artists who have shaken up their time and are recognized for their criticism of society, just like Weiwei.
He created numerous sculptures using traditional Chinese cultural objects, such as porcelain vases and Qing Dynasty furniture, to depict a dual society, divided between individualism and collectivism. He participated in the construction of China's national stadium, named the "Bird's Nest," for the 2008 Olympic Games.
Ai Weiwei's works have been exhibited in the United States at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others, in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, Germany, France, Spain, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Australia, China, Korea, and in Japan at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo.
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