Ai Weiwei redux: selling art

Readers of this blog will recall recent posts about the work of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. There's a few links to review our discussions here: a) and b) He's back in the news for the sale of a limited edition of his sunflowers. What value does this inscribe to the work when it is reproduced or, even, disambiguated and then sold? I am reminded of the writings of Walter Benjamin, his "Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" particularly, where he comments on the social and political implications of seeing a work of art repeatedly, because it is made available. I realize that Weiwei's work --all 100,000 of these sunflowers--are made by skilled artisans. Is each an original? Or, rather, where is this singular, original sunflower? In the context of Weiwei's work, what is an original? Where does authenticity lie? I'm interested in hearing thoughts on this, particular from students whose work employs multiples.

Side note: AHRG (also known as AHRECO) meets today at noon. We'll discuss Degas with readings selected and led by Elizabeth. Please join us!

Ai Weiwei at the Tate Modern

as the eleventh commission in the tate modern's unilever series, chinese conceptual artist ai weiwei
has filled the museum's turbine hall with millions of life-sized sunflower seed husks made out of 
porcelain. the collective effort of a number of specialists from jingdezhen, china, the hand-crafted 
seeds were individually formed and painted. the installation encourages visitors to touch and walk
on the carpet of tiny replicates. 

ai weiwei has manipulated the traditional methods of crafting porcelain, which has historically been
considered to be one of china's most prized exports, to explore the 'made in china' phenomenon and 
the geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today. 

See more images HERE