Standing over 10 feet tall and weighing over 1,500 pounds per piece, Ai Weiwei’s Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (Bronze) (2010) consists of 12 zodiac head sculptures. These remarkable works are installed in the Ackerley Meadow, an area of the sculpture park just outside of the PACCAR Pavilion. They are arranged in an arcing semi-circle and in order of the traditional Chinese zodiac cycle: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Boar. Visitors can get up close and walk among the sculptures.
The works reconceive 12 zodiac heads that once decorated an 18th-century Qing imperial fountain before they were looted during the Second Opium War (1856–1860). Seven are based on the original heads that have survived, and Ai researched and reimagined the five animals still missing to complete the zodiac. This work embodies Ai’s long engagement with questioning the tendency to value the real over the fake and the original over the copy.
Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (Bronze) will be on view along with 22 monumental sculptures throughout the Olympic Sculpture Park, including The Eagle (1971) by Alexander Calder, Wake (2002–03) by Richard Serra, and Seattle Cloud Cover (2006) by Teresita Fernández. Seattle’s largest green space, the nine-acre sculpture park is free and open daily from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset.