Zodiacs by Ai Weiwei coming to Seattle in the fall

The larger than life Zodiac heads by Ai Weiwei that are coming to Volunteer Park  this fall( too bad not there for the summer) represent the following animals in the usual order: Pig, Dog, Rooster, Monkey, Goat, Horse, Snake, Dragon, Rabbit, Tiger, Ox, Rat.  Each of these Zodiac animals have specific traits which you have if you were born under their sign. My (1945) sign is the rooster : it says “Those born under the rooster are profound thinkers. Talented and capable they can also be eccentric and may have difficulties in their relationships with others. Highly observant and analytical they are strong decision makers who speak their minds freely.” How about that. You can look up your year online in 12 year cycles.

These heads, which I saw in London and can therefore offer a photograph of them, have a long story. In the exhibition of smaller heads inside the Seattle Art Museum they are displayed in a different order in two parts Dog Monkey Horse Dragon Tiger Rat/Ox Rabbit, Snake, Ram, Rooster, Boar. I asked the curator Foong Ping why and he said the answer would be revealed when the large heads arrive. He called it a “an easter egg.”

The story of the zodiac heads is worth telling. The original zodiac heads were attached to seated draped torsos that were part of an elaborate water clock fountain created by an Italian artist. They combine sculpture, hydraulics, and Chinese and European aesthetics.

The location was called the Garden of Perfect Brightness or Yuanming Yuan where originally there was a complex of European style palaces gardens and fountains. It began in the mid 17^th century and was greatly expanded by the Quianlong Emperor (1736 – 1795).

In 1860 the Yuanming Yuan was looted and burned by, guess who, the British and French troops at the end of the Opium wars. “It was retaliation for kidnap and torture of a group of British diplomats and in part to force the Chinese to comply with the 1858 Treaty of Tiensin- one of a series of trade agreements imposed on China by more powerful nations and collectively referred to as the “Unequal treaties.” Sound familiar?

This was part of the Opium Wars that began in 1845 to 1945 “ the century of humiliation”

As the Chinese have become a world power they are reclaiming national treasures like the bronze heads of the zodiac fountain clock which are now looked on as “symbols of the cultural achievements of the Qing dynasty, the losses of 1860 and the humiliations that followed.” Seven heads turned up at an auction. Five have not reappeared.

Enter Ai Weiwei: Ai Weiwei thinks about China’s history and its relationship to history.  He collects artifacts of which there are several collections in the Seattle Art Museum exhibition such as the feet of Buddha statues.

As young man he returned from exile in Xinjiang province where he had been with his family since 1958. When he returned to Beijing after the death of  Mao in 1976 ,  he wandered the ruins of Yuanming Yuan. He also went to art school and founded several early avant garde groups.

Fast forward to 2010.  He recreated all twelve Zodiac heads from the fountain! He sees it as playing with history and the idea that they are national treasures because  of course they are fakes of a pastiche: the heads were made by Italian artists!

But the zodiac signs have long been significant in Chinese culture: Here is the information online

“These animals, along with their associated traits, are deeply intertwined with Chinese culture and influence beliefs about personality, relationships, and fortune. The Chinese zodiac is also known as Sheng Xiao, which literally translates to “birth resemblance:  it is a part of a broader system called Four Pillars of Destiny, which is used in Chinese astrology to understand an individual’s life path and personality.”(Wikipedia)

But the literal representations at Yuanming Ying is more European than Chinese.

So when we get to see these larger than life zodiacs in our Olympic Park, keep all of this in mind. Ai Weiwei has  placed them not as heads on a stone body as in the original fountain, but on a thin column of metal. To quote Ai Weiwei ”( The Circle) is pointing to all the people who would question whether the work is valuable or not valuable, real or not real, or better than real, or not as good as real.”

The quotes, except for Wikipedia, are from Ai Weiwei Circle of Animals, Zodiac Heads, Somerset House London 2011.