Major public sculpture by artist Ai Weiwei

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in USA is displaying the first major public sculpture by Chinese contemporary artist Ai Weiwei, titled Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads. The installation comprises twelve monumental bronze animal heads that are re-creations of the famous traditional zodiac sculptures that once adorned the fountain clock of Yuan Ming Yuan, the Old Summer Palace, located just outside Beijing. For LACMA’s presentation, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads will be on view outdoors just east of the museum’s Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion.

Cast around 1750, the original animal heads were located at the Zodiac fountain in Yuan Ming Yuan’s European-style gardens, which were designed by two European Jesuit priests in the eighteenth century. In 1860, British and French troops looted the heads amid the destruction of Yuan Ming Yuan during the Second Opium War. Today, seven heads —the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, horse, monkey, and boar— have been found; the location of the other five — dragon, snake, goat, rooster, and dog— are unknown.

In reinterpreting these objects on an oversized scale, Ai stimulates dialogue about the fate of artworks that exist within dynamic and sometimes volatile cultural and political settings.
The twelve heads are cast bronze, weighs approximately 800 pounds and measures approximately four feet high.

Date: until February 12, 2012.
Location: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). 5905 Wilshire Boulevard (at Fairfax Avenue),  Los Angeles, CA, 90036. USA.
Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday from 12am to 8pm pm. Friday from 12am to 9pm. Saturday, Sunday from 11am to 8pm.