page_title: Sunflower Seeds (artwork)
section_title: Influence/Context
hierarchical_section_title: Sunflower Seeds (artwork) / Influence/Context
caption_attribution_description: English: Close up of the installation known as Sunflower Seeds by Ai Weiwei
context_page_description: Kui Hua Zi is an art installation created by contemporary artist and political activist Ai Weiwei. It was first exhibited at the Tate Modern art gallery in London from October 2010 to May 2011. It is a commentary on the mass production techniques that China caters to Western countries.
  Viewers were originally able to interact and walk across the sunflower seeds, but after the Tate Modern Museum recognized that the dust emitting from the installation was harmful to viewers' lungs, they fenced it off. The piece has been exhibited in twelve exhibitions from 2009-2013 in museums and galleries across the world.
context_section_description: Sunflower seeds were a common theme in the Chinese Communist Party's political propaganda during Ai's childhood. Leader Mao Zedong would often represent himself as the sun, and the people of China as seeds on sunflowers in artworks. Ai also explains that when he was growing up, even the poorest families in China could share the seeds as a treat. The seeds represent optimism during difficult times.
caption: Close up of Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds
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