Bronze, 2010
Ai Weiwei, artist
On view: May 2, 2011 - July 15, 2011
Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads is the first major public art sculpture by celebrated contemporary Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.
Comprised on 12 bronze animal heads, each weighing approximately 800 pounds, the exhibition represents the animals of the traditional Chinese zodiac and was inspired by the fabled water fountain-clock of the Yuanming Yuan, an 18th-century imperial retreat just outside Beijing. In 1860, during the Second Opium War, the retreat was ransacked and the heads were pillaged. Today, seven original heads have been located; the whereabouts of the other five are unknown.
Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads marks the first time an art installation has been presented at New York City's historic Pulitzer Fountain.
Personal Note: Ai Weiwei, who was born 18 May 1957 -- less than two weeks before I was -- was imprisoned in China on 3 April 2011. A social activist, the artist had long been in conflict with the Chinese government and was prominent enough that his arrest had to have been ordered fairly high up in the governmental chain. Plans for this exhibit were long in process at that point so it went on without him.
From http://www.zodiacheads.com :
About the Exhibit: Internationally acclaimed Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei has reinterpreted the twelve bronze animal heads representing the traditional Chinese zodiac that once adorned the famed fountain-clock of the Yuanming Yuan, an imperial retreat in Beijing. Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads is the artist’s first major public sculpture project.
Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads is the centerpiece of a global, multi-year touring exhibition that will be presented in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The set of twelve zodiac heads was recently on display at the São Paolo Biennale in Brazil (September – December 2010). The official world tour for Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads by Ai Weiwei will launch in New York City at the historic Pulitzer Fountain at Grand Army Plaza near Central Park and the Plaza Hotel. The heads will be on display there from May through July 2011, with additional international and domestic venues to follow.
Designed in the 18th century by two European Jesuits serving in the court of the Qing dynasty Emperor Qianlong, the twelve zodiac animal heads originally functioned as a water clock-fountain, which was sited in the magnificent European-style gardens of the Yuanming Yuan. In 1860, the Yuanming Yuan was ransacked by French and British troops, and the heads were pillaged. In re-interpreting these objects on an oversized scale, Ai Weiwei focuses attention on questions of looting and repatriation, while extending his ongoing exploration of the “fake” and the copy in relation to the original.
Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads at the Pulitzer Fountain will be accompanied by a pendant exhibition at the Arsenal Gallery, located on the third floor of the Arsenal Building (Central Park at Fifth Avenue and 64th Street, 212-360-8163, nycgovparks.org), which will give viewers additional background on the Chinese zodiac fountain-clock that inspired Ai Weiwei’s work, and the emperor who commissioned it.
Ai Weiwei -- artist, architectural designer, curator, and social activist -- is perhaps the best-known and most successful contemporary artist in China. Ai Weiwei was born in Beijing in 1957 and is the son of acclaimed poet Ai Qing, one of the country’s finest modernist poets. Ai Qing’s work appeared in nearly every literature textbook until he was branded a rightist and exiled to a remote outpost of western China. Ai Weiwei’s birthright was simultaneously one of a cultural insider and a political outsider. Growing up in exile laid the groundwork for his future as a social activist and spokesperson for freedom of speech and against injustice.
Upon his return to Beijing in 1978, Ai Weiwei became an early member of “The Stars” (Xing Xing), one of the first avant-garde art groups in modern China. In 1981, he moved to New York City, where he gained attention for an art based on transforming everyday objects into conceptual works. Returning to China in 1993, Ai Weiwei co-founded the Chinese Art Archive & Warehouse (CAAW), a nonprofit loft-gallery in Beijing where he still serves as director.
A highly regarded artist in China and abroad, he has exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. He worked closely with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron to design the 2008 National Olympic Stadium (“the Bird’s Nest”). Most recently, Ai Weiwei made headlines with Sunflower Seeds, an exhibition in the Turbine Hall at London’s Tate Modern Museum, which consisted of 100 million hand-painted porcelain seeds.
Ai Weiwei received the Chinese Contemporary Art Award for Lifetime Contribution in 2008. Despite his success as an artist at home, however, Ai Weiwei has frequently found himself at odds with the Chinese government in his stance on free speech and human rights. He often leverages his work and acclaim to make explicit his opinions as one of China’s most outspoken cultural critics.
With his finger on the pulse of modern China and unafraid to spotlight injustices in Chinese society, Ai Weiwei maintains a connection with a devoted Chinese following through his blog and Twitter account. He has risked his life leading a number of high-profile protests to defend his beliefs which have caused him to be repeatedly, and sometimes severely, punished by Chinese authorities while drawing attention and support from all over the world.
The above is from http://www.zodiacheads.com
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