The Sun's Flower

Today I came across this photo, which features Ai Weiwei (a controversial and of-the-moment Chinese artist and activist) standing amongst one-hundred million handmade Sunflower seeds. This is his most recent installation, which can be seen at the Tate Modern Gallery in London.

The brilliance and complexity of this installation mirrors that of natural design itself; whilst reading up on Weiwei's piece I was immediately reminded of the Sunflower's commanding face, brightly-colored as it is and equally as stoic, all of those seeds nestled in an intricate pattern that I will never understand. And whereas "hundred of skilled hands" created the millions of porcelain faux-seeds for the Sunflower Seeds exhibit, we cannot attribute the existence of the real seed to any one person or actor or thing. This is the sublimity of nature, especially as it can be said to reflect or embody our humanity.