Group items tagged

A 15 minute video about the making of Ai Weiwei's Sunflower seeds. Ai Weiwei's (艾未未) Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of small works, each apparently identical, but actually unique. However realistic they may seem, these life-sized sunflower seed husks are in fact intricately hand-crafted in porcelain. Each seed has been individually sculpted and painted by specialists working in small-scale workshops in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen. Far from being industrially produced, they are the effort of hundreds of skilled hands. Poured into the interior of the Turbine Hall's vast industrial space, the 100 million seeds form a seemingly infinite landscape. Porcelain is almost synonymous with China and, to make this work, Ai Weiwei has manipulated traditional methods of crafting what has historically been one of China's most prized exports. Sunflower Seeds invites us to look more closely at the 'Made in China' phenomenon and the geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today. Sunflower Seeds was on display at Tate Modern from 12 October 2010 - 2 May 2011.

A one hour video program of  Ai Weiwei in conversation with ABC TV journalist and presenter Virginia Trioli. Hear Ai Weiwei explore his artistic and philosophical approach.

A webpage with lots of links to press coverage of Ai Weiwei's @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz. Includes articles, reviews and sound recordings.

Article Stelarc: on the body as artistic material, interview with Stahl Stenslie 2014 in the journal of Somaesthetics 2015. PDF download available.

Short article about Stelarc growing an ear on his arm with short 16 second video clip of the operation to implant the ear.

Rainer Linz interviews Stelarc.

Stelarc's website with links to projects, images, videos, articles and biography

Projects by Stelarc.

Article on Stelarc. Virilio, Stelarc & terminal technoculture by Nicholas Zurbrugg

Miss M interviews Stelarc.

Links to Stelarc videos

Links to videos on Stelarc's work from his website.

Extended-Body: Interview with Stelarc. Paolo Atzori & Kirk Woolford, Academy of Media Arts, Cologne Germany.

Stelarc videos available on Vimeo.

Ai Weiwei segment starts at 35 mins in. During his incarceration, artist Ai Weiwei's assistants, E-Shyh Wong and Inserk Yang come to New York in his place for the unveiling of Ai's public artwork near Central Park "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads" (2010).

Information about Ai Weiwei's work titled Fairytale 2007.

2 hours 33 minutes documentary on Ai Weiwei's work Fairytale. Fairytale is one of Ai's two contributions for Documenta 12 in 2007. For this project, Ai brought 1,001 people (including himself) from all over China to the city of Kassel in Germany. They were chosen through an open invitation posted on his blog. Ai designed clothes, luggage and a dormitory in an old textile factory for the visitors. He let them wander around the city during the exhibition time of three months. The participants were divided into five groups that each stayed in Kassel for a week. According to Philip Tinari the primary design object here is not the clothing or suitcases but the participants' experiences, even their spirits. He was also commissioned to create another sculpture at Documenta 12, titled Template. During the exhibition, the monumental outdoor piece made of wooden doors and windows from destroyed Ming and Qing Dynasty houses (1368--1911), collapsed after a storm.

An Article 'Ai Weiwei: China's social consciousness' by Thomas J Berghuis