When an installation by the Chinese conceptual artist Ai Weiwei opened on Tuesday at Turbine Hall, the cavernous entrance space of the Tate Modern in London, visitors were encouraged to touch and even walk on the 100 million hand-crafted porcelain sunflower seeds that gave the piece its name. But on Thursday this kind of intimate interaction stopped. Officials at the museum closed off access to “Sunflower Seeds,” and is now only allowing visitors to see it from a walkway above the hall, reports Carol Vogel in the New York Times.
The movement of the crowds released a “greater than expected level” of ceramic dust, according to a statement released by the Tate, which added that it had “been advised that this dust could be damaging to health following repeated inhalation over a long period of time.” As a result, the museum, in consultation with the artist, “decided not to allow visitors to walk across the sculpture.’’
Sunflower seeds are a ubiquitous Chinese street snack, and in Mr. Ai’s piece they are thought to represent both fellowship and the enforced conformity experienced during the Cultural Revolution, when propaganda posters depicted Chairman Mao as the sun and Chinese people as sunflowers turning toward him.
There have been safety problems in Turbine Hall before. In 2007 three visitors fell into the artist Doris Salcedo’s “Shibboleth,” a jagged crack running the length of the room. The year before, several people suffered bruises from Carsten Holler’s twisting slide.
Art as life, is risky and sometimes also dangerous.
Congratulations to Ai Wei Wei!
Dulce
having seen a few of his works the art assassin is under the impression that the chinese artist Ai Wei Wei lacks sophistication. If pushed, he would go furher and say that he’s(Ai Wei Wei) a peasant who more than likely eminates from a rural background.
‘THEY ARE JUST BEING PRECIOUS” ??
PUBLIC LIABILITY A MODERN EPIDEMIC ??
POLLUTION ON MAIN ROADS WOULD BE MORE HAZARDOUS ?
Perhaps he should consider using real sun flower seeds. Beside being walked on, the sculpture can be eaten too.
I think the artist here intended to create this outcome. And in a way the treading of the Seeds is a metaphor for life itself. If you tread on me I will erode, insinuating all life is layered, and grown from a seed. Also art these days to be successful has to be sensationalized. A Post-Modern outcome in the consumer age.
Me gusta mucho toda la obra de Ai, creo que es el mismo que coloco los sillones de la dinastía y es muy bueno como escultor, por lo que lei. El mundo debe sentirse feliz que haya un artista de esta calidad. VI SU OBRA EN SAATCHI Y ME ENCANTO QUE LOGRARA HACER LA TORRE DE TATLIN.
AH, RECORDÉ QUE AI TRABAJO CON MUCHÍSIMOS CHINOS PARA REALIZAR CREO QUE UN MILLON DE SEMILLAS DE GIRASOLES. ES HERMOSO PODER TENER UN PROYECTO Y LLEVARLO A CABO.ESTO ESTA HECHO CON PORCELANA DE BUENA CALIDAD PARA QUE SOPORTE EL PESO DE LA GENTE QUE PUEDE PARARSE O CAMINAR SOBRE ELLA. NECESITA MUY ALTA TEMPERATURA PARA ADQUIRIR TAL RESISTENCIAY ES LA QUE ADMITE, ADEMÁS APILARSE SIN ROMPERSE. CIENCIA Y TÉCNICA DE LA MANO? OBVIO QUE SÍ.
Humph! the Nanny State strikes again!