In 2010 Ai Weiwei launched a show called Sunflower Seeds at the Tate Modern in London. His work is brilliant on so many levels. Using sunflowers carried a blunt symbolism: Mai Zedong was the sun and the Chinese people were the sunflowers, all facing one direct to receive the nourishing ways.

Being as outspoken as Ai Weiwei is his symbolism of the sunflower is a bit more subversive.  He spread more than a hundred million of them, all hand-painted– across the floor of a large hall at the Tate Modern in London. Ai wanted visitors to move freely across the installation, picking the seeds up, moving them around, doing whatever they wanted.  I love how he uses common elements of everyday Chinese life and incorporates them into his art. It is also amazing how these porcelain seeds “sound” like the real thing.

Another interesting point is how Ai Weiwei set up the production of the thousands of sunflower seeds. It is done in group style with each person painstakingly painting the sunflower seed stripes. I saw this style of working in many factories I visited back in the late 1980’s.

I did something similar, in 2004, distributing 100 blank journals across Beijing, asking only that people add to them and send them onto others. I was looking for everyday-types of whatever to fill the pages and I got some really interesting returns and had an exhibition at the Academy of Music in 2009.

Sadly, Ai Weiwei who has been a champion of freedom and an outspoken critic of China’s human rights record, has had his Shanghai studio demolished and he was also arrested and detained.  Now he is forbidden from giving interviews or using the Internet. Before his arrest Ai was able to send a videotaped speech to the TED conference. You can watch that below. I hope someday, Ai Weiwei will have more of his work shown around the world.