Ai Weiwei’s zodiac sculpture made a big splash in Toronto this week after the official unveiling on Tuesday. The Chinese artist-activist’s great twelve-piece installation called “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads” was placed in the reflecting pool in front of Toronto’s City Hall. It will be there until the end of September.
In mid-August an exhibit of more of his work called “Ai Weiwei: According to What?” will open at the nearby Art Gallery of Ontario. The artist himself, remains in China, unable to accompany his work since his passport was confiscated by Chinese authorities in 2011 in a crackdown on dissidents and activists.
In an interview with CBC on Tuesday, AGO director, Matthew Teitelbaum explained the sculptures, “They are works that Ai Weiwei made in response to a series of works that were done in the late 1700’s and taken away to Europe during the Opium Wars in the mid-19th century. He, in a sense, has repatriated them by remaking them and having us think about the relationship of contemporary China to Chinese history, and how it has been eroded by its relation with other countries.”
The AGO already has a very moving piece by Ai Weiwei in the gallery. It’s called “Snake Ceiling” and it is made up of many children’s backpacks in the shape of a snake, a memorial to the 5,000 children that died in the Sichaun earthquake in 2008.
Carmel Kilkenny spoke with Elizabeth Smith, executive director of curatorial affairs at the AGO, to hear more about the current installation and the upcoming exhibit.
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