Kui Hua Zi
Kui Hua Zi – which means “sunflower seeds” – is a continuation of Ai Wei Wei’s practice of fusing Western and Eastern sensibilities, history, and contemporary political metaphor.
The sunflower seeds are a symbol for a sustainable way of life, and are made in porcelain, a material invented in China 1,200 years ago. The image and metaphor of the sunflower seed were omnipresent in Mao’s cultural revolution and often represented the Chairman himself. Packed in a modern household glass, they are a down-to-earth symbol to be used by everyone and emphasize Ai’s combination of the common with the extraordinary. The gesture of enclosing the seeds within a re-sealable jar is part of his larger vision of interactivity in his works and metaphors of Chinese society. The porcelain sunflower seeds represent the one and the many; and the modern with the ancient.
