Tate Modern
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- kingkong
Ai Weiwei's Sunflower seeds at Tate Modern
The latest instalment of Britain's largest contemporary art commission was unveiled in the Turbine Hall this morning: a vast carpet of porcelain replica sunflower seeds assembled by artist Ai Weiwei, each hand-fired and hand-painted by an inhabitant of Jingdezhen, the 'porcelain capital' of his native China. Here's a first glimpse inside
100 million handcrafted created sunflower seeds, individually pained. Crazy.
- srhadden0
cost of the seeds : 150 USD
- maikel0
if you are going to do something very little creative and perhaps even less appealing, do it in a massive scale and see how it goes™
O_o
- lukus_W0
I think this is really clever - I like it a lot. Wish I'd gone to see it earlier today. Conceptually, it works on so many levels .. food - industrial production - China's place in the world - our link with Chinese workers - the bond between Chinese workers - the creation of artificial landscapes / foodstuffs / artefacts - links with historical crafts - the power of crowds. The ideas that come to mind are pretty limitless.
The fact that people can interact with it (in a similar way to the Sun exhibit) is great. I was wondering what would happen about people taking mementos - but I guess this is part of the scope of the concept too.
- Just the fact that people have to walk over the fruits of these workers' labour - is a powerful metaphor in itself.lukus_W
- like the one i feel when i walk on my marble floor? labor is what laborers do.neowe
- mate, it is conceptually great, but for some readon i reckon it should also be visually attractive. maybe my mistake.maikel
- the thought of looking into a sea of others efforts while they receive no credit is a turnoffneowe
- I don't think art always needs to involve aesthetics - I can see why you might think that .. but I reckon conceptual art can provide just as much as a pretty image. Beauty is a concept - step out of that arena, and other concepts will naturally become more relevant.lukus_W
- provide just as much as a pretty image. Beauty is a concept - step out of that arena, and other concepts will naturally become more relevant.lukus_W
- become more relevant.lukus_W
- i see your point. i always thought of tate as a museum of visual arts, but now and again i see the concept...maikel
- ... being more important that the visual outcome even in visual arts. i guess i'm oldschool, yomaikel
- @maikel - hehe - conceptual art isn't new art as idea is pretty old school in itself - where have you been?fadein10
- Ruffian0
He must have had an army (sweatshop) of assistants to make them by hand.
- aanderton0
- Tate Britain is pretty tight at the moment. http://www.amoderncl…neandersthal
- shallow depth of field prob 1.2-1.8neowe
- re: image. it's shopped or shot with a lens filter. normal bokeh is circular.ItTango
- that's not bokeh, it's depth of field, the range of distance in which objects are in focusneowe
- d of p does not create that effect. this bokeh would be a the result of wide openItTango
- aperture and relatively small focal area.ItTango
- i'll give you a link... you keep bitching... i'll upload a pic
http://www.seemsartl…neowe - d o f does not produce blurred foreground, sharp middle, and out blurred backgrounds.ItTango
- your link supports me comments. no blurred foreground.ItTango
- it's DOF, you have cheap lenses likely. aperture as low as possible. as close to the primary subject as possibleneowe
- it does too dipshit.neowe
- not bitching. you simply don't know what the fuck you're talking about.ItTango
- where's the blurred foreground you simple twit.ItTango
- you said something?neowe
- in the link, he states he focused on the red car in front.neowe
- Wow this is entertaining.aanderton
- well i do it all the time with depth of field using a cheap lensrusty_ace
- high five rusty aceneowe
- neowe0
Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, China
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Ji…
- ItTango0
wow.
*begins work on porcelain replica glass of cherry kool-aid.
- sander0
Tate modern has the single highest concentration of museum-quality art school booty in the universe.
- nikdaum0
Speaking of Jingdezhen, it's a pretty interesting town to visit. You can walk around and see people making ceramics virtually everywhere. There are pots drying by the side of train tracks, in the yards of homes, etc. They have a great ceramics workshop too.
I have a couple photos from a weekend trip there at:
http://www.nikdaum.com/news/2009…
and
http://www.nikdaum.com/news/2009…
- nadanada0
ai weiwei is a crazy dude.
hung out with him in china a few times... he's fun.really like this.
- neowe0
bokeh is the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light
http://www.google.com/images?q=b…
next time know what you're talking bout
- fadein100
@lukus_w - someone who understands the point of art... always surprises me how little designers understand the difference between art and design. Some v.odd comments about art needing to be visually attractive on here, surprising.
- ItTango0
- bokeh is the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of lightneowe
- http://www.google.co…neowe
- the image linked is an example of DOF not Bokehneowe
- the bokeh in this pic are the points of light reflecting off the black keysneowe
- so you're still wrong, and not even a good loser.neowe
- bokeh refers to light points out of focus, none of which are shown in the pic that started this discussionneowe
- bokeh is enhanced by depth of field. but this is important to you, so you win.ItTango
- you should educate yourself before attempting to inform others. no bokeh in the above pic, dof as i stated beforeneowe
- << stfu, everyonerosskemp
- Douglas0
Isn't the latest Turner Prize show open now too? I've read some mixed reviews on this year's nominees.