AI WEIWEI:  Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Bronze

LongHouse Reserve is excited to present Ai Weiwei's Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Bronze.

The twelve monumental bronze animal heads—each approximately ten-feet tall and representing the traditional figures of the Chinese zodiac—will be installed around the perimeter of LongHouse's outdoor Albee Amphitheater.

This exhibition is the third time the celebrated Chinese 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.

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. The sculptures debuted at the São Paulo Biennial in 2010, and then began an international tour, arriving in the U.S. at the Pulitzer Fountain at the Grand Army Plaza in Central Park, New York in 2011. Past exhibition venues include Somerset House, London, UK; LACMA, Los Angeles; The Warhol Museum and Carnegie Museum of Art, PA; Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, UK; Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria;, The National Museum of Wildlife Art, WY; The Tuileries Garden at the Louvre, Paris, France; Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City, Mexico; Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan; Contemporary Art Centre of Malaga (CAC), Malaga, Spain; Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C, among other notable locations around the world.

The enormous distances the Zodiac Heads have travelled can be compared with the experience of many, including the artist. In April 2011, Ai Weiwei was detained for 81 days and later 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 held in China. In 2016 Ai was granted his freedom and he visited the National Gallery in Prague to see the Zodiac Heads: Bronze installed at a museum for the first time in person.

Ai Weiwei
Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, 2010
Bronze
Private collection.
Installation of new work in the gardens is made possible in part through;
The Robert Lehman Foundation; Dorothy Lichtenstein; Sandy and Steve Perlbinder;
Katja Goldman and Michael W. Sonnenfeldt;
Harbor Market & Kitchen, Sag Harbor
Suffolk County