In the afternoon we went to the Tate Modern museum. I thought it was very interesting to find out that the turbine hall was originally a power station. The exhibit that was being shown in the Turbine Hall was the artwork of Ai Weiwei. Ai Weiwei is a leading conceptual artist in China. I was amazed by his sunflower seeds, there were over 100 million of them spread out over the floor. Each sunflower seed was cast and then hand painted by artisans. To Ai Weiwei these sunflower seeds are a common street snack shared with friends and carry personal associations. During Mao Zedong's brutal cultural revolution, individuals were stripped of personal freedom. The seeds are a gesture of human compassion, a space for pleasure, friendship and kindness in a time of poverty, repression and uncertainty. Making this a comment on the masses and the individual. When thinking and discussing this artwork there were many different thoughts and ideas that came up. Even though this artwork is Ai Weiwei's concept and made through his management skills, he wasn't involved in the actual making process. Over 1600 artisans made the seeds and then hand painted them. Even though this provided jobs for people in China, as a ceramist i always wonder how much involvement you need to have in the making of your artwork for it to be your own. Is it enough for it to be just your idea? In my own opinion i think it is better to have assistants that help you with certain jobs, but you still have a hand in the making of most of your artwork. Then again this artwork might be an exception because of the Ai Weiwei's reasons for creating this work. The other thing i questioned was how in the beginning you were able to walk on the sunflower seeds and now you can't. I was curious what was the point of walking on the seeds. I'm sad i missed out on this experience though. They stopped letting people walk on them do to health issues from the dust of the porcelain. I feel like it should have been to experience the piece at your own risk. And if the real concern was for the workers than they should have had to wear dust masks instead of taking away one of the aspects of the piece. Overall this piece was very moving and has helped me to be a more informed artist and i think definitely have an influence on my own ceramic artwork.
In the evening we saw a theater play called War Horse at the New London Theater. This play was set during WWI and was about a boy who loved his horse so much he joined the war just to find his horse. I couldn't believe the way the horses in the play were made. They were puppets but made out of contour lines of a wood material with people controlling the movements of the horses. The details they were able to achieve was amazing and very life-like. When they flicked the tail every so often or twitch the ears, i almost forgot it was a puppet. This was a great play to see and a welcomed change from the other events on the trip.
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