Ai Weiwei’s Zodiac Heads At LongHouse Reserve

LongHouse Reserve is currently hosting an exhibition of Ai Weiwei’s “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Bronze.” The 12 monumental bronze animal heads — each approximately 10-feet tall and representing the traditional figures of the Chinese zodiac — went on view on July 8 around the perimeter of LongHouse's outdoor Albee Amphitheater and will remain on view through October 2021.

This sculpture series by the world-renowned Chinese artist will mark the 50th installation of the series around the world and the third time the artist has participated with LongHouse. In 2013, he was honored with the LongHouse Award. At the time under house arrest in Beijing, he sent a video as an acceptance speech. In 2013 Ai’s “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Gold” was also exhibited at LongHouse Reserve.

[caption id="attachment_102353" align="alignnone" width="600"] Ai Weiwei's Zodiac Heads at LongHouse Reserve. Photo by Richard Lewin.[/caption]

LongHouse Reserve is one of over 45 international locations that have hosted the “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Bronze and Gold” series during the last decade. In April 2011, Ai Weiwei was detained for 81 days before being released from secret captivity by Chinese authorities, but his passport was confiscated and he remained under house arrest until July 2015. For the duration of the “Zodiac Heads: Bronze” exhibition in Chicago in 2014, the sculptures were hooded as a reminder that the artist was still being held in China. In 2016 Ai was granted his freedom and visited the National Gallery in Prague to see the “Zodiac Heads: Bronze” installed at a museum for the first time in person.

Each of the “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Bronze” sculptures ranges in weight from 1,500 to 2,100 pounds and is supported by a buried marble base weighing 600 to 1,000 pounds. They are displayed in cosmological order according to the traditional Chinese zodiac: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The sculptures’ combined weight of over 46,000 pounds will require massive lifts to move them into place among the trees and flowers of LongHouse’s gardens.

The sculptures are re-envisioned versions of the original 18th-century heads that were designed during the Qing dynasty for the fountain clock of the Yuanming Yuan (Garden of Perfect Brightness), an imperial retreat outside Beijing. The ornate European-style gardens were originally designed by two European Jesuit priests. In 1860, during the Second Opium War, British and French troops looted the heads during the destruction of Yuanming Yuan. 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. The ownership of the original works remains the subject of international controversy, with various Chinese collectors making a bid to reunite these significant historical sculptures whenever they come to auction.

“My work is always dealing with real or fake authenticity, and what’s the value, and how the value relates to current political and social understandings and misunderstandings,” states Ai Weiwei. “I think [there’s] a strong humorous aspect there. So I wanted to make a complete set [of zodiac heads], including the seven original and the missing five.”

LongHouse Reserve is at 133 Hands Creek Road, East Hampton. For more information, visit longhouse.org or zodiacheads.com.