Thursday, August 15, 2013

Pic of the Day: Aug 15

These are bronze heads of the Chinese Zodiac.  They were done by Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei.
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He has created a number of important, often ephemeral, works around the world.  And he is a human rights activist at home in China.

The heads are... well, I will let Wikipedia explain...
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Despite the artist's absence, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads opened on 4 May 2011, at the Pulitzer Fountain outside the Plaza Hotel in New York City.[49] The heads were also on display at Somerset House in London from 12 May – 26 June 2011.[50] The heads copy 18th century heads in the gardens of the Old Summer Palace, or Yuanmingyuan, near Beijing. They were ransacked by British and French troops during the Second Opium War of 1860, some of them resurfacing in 2000. A Guggenheim curator read Ai's words, "Without freedom of speech there is no modern world, just a barbaric one."[49]