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-We are in part one of two parts of the exhibition "Ai, Rebel."
I wanted to show you a very important work by Ai Weiwei.
It's one of his most famous.
It's titled "Sunflower Seeds," and you can see a pile here.
It actually is 2,000 pounds' worth of sunflower seeds.
That is one ton of it.
You might ask, how can sunflower seeds be so heavy?
Well, these ones are actually made out of porcelain.
Every single one of them was molded
and then hand-painted by artisans in China.
In fact, Ai Weiwei had employed 1,600 painters, skilled hands
to help him paint every single one of these.
They were all women --
all 1,600 of these skilled artisans were women.
And they brought them back in bags
to their homes and as piecemeal work
so that, in between childcare
and cooking meals for the family,
they would take them out and sit around the table,
mom and aunties and grandmas all sitting around
and painting these things.
Then, 100 million of them were produced to lay on the ground
of Turbine Hall in the Tate Modern in London
when they were originally created.
But very excitingly for Seattle,
is that we have this world debut of the part two
of the "Sunflower Seeds" project, titled "Shells."
Shells -- that is, eaten sunflower seeds.
They look so realistic, they're almost as if you can feel
that they have actually been eaten,
but they're actually porcelain.
And I had a chance to play with them
on Ai Weiwei's dining-room table.
I ran my hands through them, and they actually,
because they're porcelain, they tinkle like bells.
♪♪
-"Ai, Rebel: The Art and
Activism of Ai Weiwei"
at Seattle Art Museum
runs now through September 7th.
Reserve your ticket at
seattleartmuseum.org.
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Catch Art Zone Friday nights at 8 and
anytime online at SeattleChannel.org/ArtZone.
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