Sunflower seed carpet fills Tate

A carpet of more than 100 million "sunflower seeds" has been laid in a new art installation at Tate Modern.

The seeds - which are in fact made of porcelain - were created by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei for the Tate's annual Unilever Series. Visitors to the vast Turbine Hall can walk on and pick up the seeds, but are asked not to take them away. The exhibition will run until May 2011.Each imitation seed was sculpted and painted by specialists working in small-scale workshops in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen. Work on the project began two years ago. Covering 1,000 square metres of the Turbine Hall, walking across the porcelain seeds is like crossing a pebbly beach.

China currently has a population of 1.4 billion - imagine how many more "small seeds" that would be? Makes you really appreciate the population of not only China but of our planet. No wonder Mother Nature is exhausted.  

BBC News - Sunflower seed carpet fills Tate (BBC Video available on link)