Tate Modern

At Tate Modern, Seeds of Discontent by the Ton

Visitors once frolicked among Ai Weiwei’s millions of painted porcelain seeds at Tate Modern.

By ROBERTA SMITH

Published: October 18, 2010

LONDON — Last Wednesday I had a close encounter with “Sunflower Seeds,” the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s oceanic new installation piece in the cavernous Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern here. The work consists of roughly 100 million hand-painted porcelain sunflower seeds covering a vast expanse of floor to the depth of about four inches, and visitors were invited to wade right in. The black-and-white seeds crunched delightfully underfoot, and the whole thing resembled an indoor pebble beach, with people strolling about and then plunking down to sit or recline. One young man had buried himself... Click here for the rest of the article

I thought that this article was so interesting how many times have you gone to an art museum and all you do is look at the art and not really interact. So this piece really draws the viewer in because the whole point is to touch walk through and be part of the artwork. Not just looking at it, which is awesome.