today in the early morning, the four members of artist group iocose stopped at a grocery store at the bankside district in london, uk. they bought an innocuous bag of sunflower seeds at the price of 1 british pound. a short walk from the grocery was the 'sunflower seeds' exhibition by ai weiwei. the installation, exhibited at the turbine hall at tate modern as part of the unilever series, displayed millions of hand-crafted porcelains in the shape of sunflower seeds. the four iocoses took hold of their catapults and started launching the cheaper and real sunflower seeds in the exhibition area. then changed the signs at the turbine hall and renamed the artwork 'sunflower seeds on sunflowers seeds'.
it took a while before the security noticed iocose's unruly behaviour. when asked to leave their own exhibition, the four iocoses expressed disappointment and were joined by a group of tourists who were honestly appreciating the unexpected opening. despite this, iocose would like to complain for the lack of promptness by the security. now that iocose's work is on exhibition the group would like to demand major awareness on its preservation.
(excerpt from the press release)
the sunflower seeds on "suflower seeds" will stay on display until may 2nd 2011. enjoy & remember ai weiwei's previous statement: 'what you see is not what you see, and what you see is not what it means'.