The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei

This weekend I visited the Tate Modern with a particular interest in seeing the installation in the turbine hall by Ai Weiwei.
I had hoped that it would have been more interactive, but unfortunatley you are not allowed to touch the seeds. There is an accompanying video in which Ai Weiwei shows the process and techniques used to produce these seeds. This makes the whole exhibit seem a lot more impressive. On their own, if glanced at quickly you could mistake it for gravel.

"Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of small works, each apparently identical, but actually unique. However realistic they may seem, these life-sized sunflower seed husks are in fact intricately hand-crafted in porcelain.
Each seed has been individually sculpted and painted by specialists working in small-scale workshops in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen. Far from being industrially produced, they are the effort of hundreds of skilled hands. Poured into the interior of the Turbine Hall’s vast industrial space, the 100 million seeds form a seemingly infinite landscape.
Porcelain is almost synonymous with China and, to make this work, Ai Weiwei has manipulated traditional methods of crafting what has historically been one of China’s most prized exports. Sunflower Seeds invites us to look more closely at the ‘Made in China’ phenomenon and the geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today."
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/unileverseries2010/default.shtm

Germany

Last weekend I went for a long weekend trip to visit my good friend Nina.
Sadly the weather was a little grey and very cold, but still had a great time.
Here are a selection of the photos that I took, from a mixture of Breman and Hamburg.

V&A

I went to the V&A yesterday to see the Shadow Catchers: Camera-less photography exhibition.

Was really interesting, its a concept that is quite new to me, and I'm not sure that I've quite got my head around all the details of the different techniques, but still a really enjoyable exhibition.

There were 5 different artists: Floris Neususs, Pierre Cordier, Garry Fabian Miller, Susan Derges and Adam Fuss, all with quite different and unique styles.

I think my favourite of the whole exhibition was Susan Derges' Autum series:

These were 'C' Prints using water to create the background and sky, and then layering up the flowers and foliage on top. This one is my favourite due to the amazing blue colours.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Tonight was my second attempt at making this particular recipe.

It didn't fall apart as much as the first time- and still tasted amazing.

Presentation still not great, but getting better I think.