Sunday 14th May 2023
Difficulty: Very hard
Sunflower Seeds (Quiz #177)
Photo: Al Cassels (Creative Commons)
Kui Hua Zi (Sunflower Seeds) was an art installation created by artist and political activist Ai Weiwei, exhibited at the Tate Modern gallery in London from October 2010 to May 2011. It consisted of 100,000,000 individually hand-made, life-size, porcelain sunflower seeds which filled the gallery's 1,000 square metre Turbine Hall.
1. Each ceramic seed was made by a 30 step procedure, hand painted and fired at 1,300 degrees. How long did it take the 1,600 workers to make all the seeds?
2. The seeds were evenly spread over the 1,000 square metre floor of the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. What was the depth of the layer of seeds?
3. Visitors were originally able to interact with, and walk across, the sunflower seeds, but after a few days the Tate Modern Museum fenced it off. Why?
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