Ai Weiwei, Sunflower Seed, 2024

Ai Weiwei has generously produced Sunflower Seed, 2024, a limited edition artwork in support of Tate.

Ai’s limited edition for Tate references his seminal Unilever Series commission, Sunflower Seeds, 2010, for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. The commission consisted of over 100 million intricately hand-crafted porcelain sunflower seed husks that together formed a single unique surface. The porcelain sunflower seeds were sculpted and painted by specialists in small-scale workshops in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen. Rather than being machine produced, the artwork was the effort of 1600 artisans over two years.

For Ai’s limited edition, Sunflower Seed, 2024, an image of a single sunflower seed has been assembled by hand using children’s toy bricks. Ai has been exploring the medium of toy bricks since 2014 with his work, Trace, to more recent works such as Water Lilies #1, 2023. Ai believes that the process of slowing down and assembling by hand, whether making a porcelain sculpture of a sunflower seed or an image of a sunflower seed from individual toy bricks, is important in today's fast paced and technology-oriented world. The limited edition, much like the Turbine Hall commission, is a reflection on each piece being a part of the whole, a commentary on the relationship between the individual and the masses.

Each artwork is accompanied by a signed and numbered certificate. Prices of the artwork are liable to change. As a limited edition sells out, prices of the artwork are subject to increase and the price will be clearly indicated.

About the artist

Widely considered to be one of the most significant cultural figures of his generation, Ai Weiwei (b. 1957, Beijing, China) successfully occupies multiple roles as a conceptual artist, architect, curator, designer, film-maker, publisher and activist. Using a variety of formal languages with both traditional and innovative methods of production, Ai links the past with the present and explores the geopolitical, economic and cultural realities affecting the world with humour and compassion.

Recent solo exhibitions include Pilane Sculpture Park, Sweden (2023); Design Museum, London, UK (2023); Albertina Modern, Vienna, Austria (2022); Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK (2022); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea (MMCA), Seoul, Korea (2021); Serralves Foundation, Porto, Portugal (2021); Corodoaria Nacional, Lisbon, Portugal (2021); K20/K21, Düsseldorf, Germany (2019); Corpartes, Santiago, Chile (2018); Mucem, Marseille, France (2018). Architectural collaborations include the 2012 Serpentine Pavilion and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium, with Herzog and de Meuron. Selected awards and honours include Praemium Imperiale for sculpture from the Japan Art Association in Tokyo (2022); The Lifetime Achievement Award, Chinese Contemporary Art Awards (2008); Honorary Academician, Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (2011). His human rights work has been recognised through the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent in 2012 and Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award in 2015. He lives and works in multiple locations, including Beijing, China, Berlin, Germany, Cambridge, UK, and Lisbon, Portugal.

Photo on lid of box © Tate (Marcus Leith and Andrew Dunkley)

• Artist Ai Weiwei
• Artwork Sunflower Seed
• Dimensions 38 x 38 cm
• Material Children’s toy bricks on baseplate in bespoke box.
• Edition Edition of 100, accompanied by a signed and numbered certificate
• Date of work 2024