Ai Weiwei -Sunflower Seeds & F-Lotus

Who made Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds?

• It took 1,600 artisans, in Jingdezhen, two and a half years to manufacture thousands of porcelain sunflower seeds

• Ai Weiwei hand made them himself

• 1,600 artisans in America took two and a half years to manufacture the porcelain sunflower seeds

How were the Sunflower Seeds made?

• They required a 30-step procedure where each seed was formed individually and each seed was hand-painted and then glaze fired

• They required a simple procedure where each seed was mass produced by a machine and spray painted.

what was the symbolism behind the use of the Sunflower Seeds?

• they symbolise the hardship and hunger during the Cultural Revolution, and the era of communism with Chairman Mao being the collective leader

• Sunflower Seeds were a symbol of freedom of choice in Chairman Mao's reign

• as, in nature, sunflower seeds follow the path of the sun, sunflower seeds became a communist symbol for the worship of Chairman Mao, as the people likewise followed the rules Mao set.

The symbolism of Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds directly relate to Chairman Mao's dictatorship. Why,then, was it important that people could lay and walk upon Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds?

• Chairman Mao’s poetic metaphor implied that he was the “sun” and the Chinese people were “sunflowers,” as the sunflowers always follow the path of the sun. Therefore, the significance of Weiwei’s idea was to challenge the present day Chinese government and at the same time confront the oppressive nature of Mao’s past regime by intentionally incorporating the interaction of the audience as they rolled, sat upon and walked over the porcelain sunflower seeds. Reflecting the freedom of audience, in the West, to interact freely and playfully with a powerful symbol that in Mao's time embodied oppression and loss of life.

• Chairman Mao’s poetic metaphor such as he was the “sun” and the Chinese people being “sunflower seeds,” does not make sense.

What material is F-Lotus made from and how is F-Lotus made?

• F-Lotus is made from1,005 life jackets (used by fleeing refugees) and shaped into lotus flowers for a floating installation in Vienna.

• F-Lotus is made from 2 life jackets and shaped into a smile

The installation features 201 Lotus Flowers – each made with five life jackets worn by Syrian refugees and arranged into the shape of the letter F. What does the F stand for?

• F is a reoccurring and provocative motif in Ai Weiwei's work." It relates to freedom and many other things, some very controversial.

• F is not a reoccurring theme and means nothing in Ai Weiwei's work."

• It is an uppercase gothic F letter.

  The font is an “Old English font”

Ai Weiwei creates installations on a big scale. How does he go about creating them?

• Ai Weiwei works closely with different teams of artists, so in a certain sense his work is collabrative, although the conceptual ideas are driven by Weiwei. A lot of his materials are recycled and in this sense link to the tradition of readymades. He prepares with hand drawings, computor aided site plans, so that his large installations relate to the environment he is exhibiting in.

• He just throws things together

Ai Weiwei, is incredibly skilled in merging the past with the present, while showing the conflict that exists between governments and people. How does he do this?

• he does not care about symbols

• Ai Weiwei uses symbolism to express political ideas, emotions, and states of mind of the refuggees. e.g Sunflower seeds( hunger & oppression) & life jackets (refugees depending on foreign aid for their survival)