Zodaic Heads

Ai Weiwei is a contemporary artist and activist against the Chinese government. After him and his family were exiled from Beijing in 1958 for his father being an anti-rightist during the revolution. Once he was able to return to Beijing, 16 years alter,  he enrolled in the film academy to which launched him into his art career and the start a cultural revolution in China.

"I think its more important to show your work to the public. That's what I really care about. When Andy Warhol painted Mao in the 1960s and 1970s, I don't think many people understand Mao, either-it was just this image that people knew, like Marilyn Monroe or somebody. So they might see these zodiac animals like that-like Mickey Mouse. They're just animals. Eleven real animals and one mystic animal." -Ai Weiwei


The Sanke head

This quote from Weiwei really shows the intention behind his zodiac heads exhibit that is currently at the Crocker Art Museum. The exhibit starts off with several photographs and drawings from 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 over-sized 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. He is using the idea of apportion of the animals that are well known and also the same ones from the fountain clock that was in the center of the palace at Yuanming Yuan.


mom and her friend with the boar

The heads themselves all represent different birth years and have different attributes for each one. The originals were said to have been places in a giant circle in the middle of the beautiful European style garden in the center of the Palace,with the dragon in the center. Each head was suppose to have spouted water to depicted the time with them all spouting at noon and midnight.



Me with the ram head

Ai Weiwei has been mass producing these giant bronze heads to achieve global awareness. The exhibit moves all over the world and even several have sold in auctions. Of course after you move past the main room exhibit, you encounter the actually heads which are so large and quite impressive. They are truly magnificent with a very dark and destructive past and by using them in a such a beautiful way thing it plays at the idea of contrast in beauty and destruction.
 


The dragon head the center of the fountain