{"id":75202,"date":"2016-05-01T10:59:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-01T14:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=75202"},"modified":"2016-05-01T10:59:56","modified_gmt":"2016-05-01T14:59:56","slug":"giant-chinese-zodiac-sculptures-turning-heads-boston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/05\/01\/giant-chinese-zodiac-sculptures-turning-heads-boston\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant Chinese zodiac sculptures are turning heads in Boston"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Zodiac<\/a>
Zodiac Heads, Installation Views (Photo from zodiacheads.com<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BOSTON \u2013 A dozen giant bronze animal heads representing the signs of the Chinese zodiac are stopping people in their tracks in downtown Boston and sparking conversations.<\/p>\n

\u201cCircle of Animals\/Zodiac Heads,\u201d by contemporary Chinese artist and human rights activist Ai Weiwei, is the latest in a series of outdoor public art projects on the Rose Kennedy Greenway intended to delight, awe, and educate the thousands of tourists and workers who walk through the park daily.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of all public art is to engage people,\u201d said Lucas Cowan, the public art curator of the Greenway Conservancy, which oversees the 1.5-mile long ribbon of open space that was once a dim, grimy place in the shadow of an overhead highway.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be able to bring people here where they see them up close and not in a museum is very important,\u201d he said. \u201cIf people just walk past this, then we\u2019ve failed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 10-foot-tall cast bronze sculptures, which weigh 1,600 to 2,100 pounds apiece when the stem and base are included, are arranged in an outward-facing circle surrounding a popular children’s splash area called the Rings Fountain. They are positioned in order \u2013 rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.<\/p>\n

They are based on similar but smaller zodiac sculptures that once adorned the fountain clock in the European-style garden at the Yuanming Yuan, an imperial summer palace outside Beijing.<\/p>\n

The palace was ransacked by British and French troops in 1860, and the heads stolen. Most have been recovered and returned to China, but two remain missing, Cowan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy enlarging them like this, the artist is saying, \u2018They belong to us; give them back,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cowan also hopes people who see the sculptures educate themselves about the social justice and political issues the artist is involved in. Ai this year has been drawing attention to the European refugee crisis.<\/p>\n

The Boston installation, which will be in place until October, is part of a world tour of the animal heads owned by a private collector that started in 2010 and has already visited several U.S. and international cities.<\/p>\n

Even as workers put the finishing touches on the exhibit earlier this week, dozens of people stopped to take pictures or just gaze up at the detailed sculptures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live just down the street, and we knew they were putting them in, but when we saw them, we just said, \u2018Wow,\u2019\u201d said Davida Carvin, who was checking out the sculptures with her friend, neighbour and walking partner, Andrea Mattisen-Haskins. \u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of art along the Greenway, and this is right up there with the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe quality is spectacular and the detail and texture is amazing,\u201d said Mattisen-Haskins, as the pair snapped pictures.<\/p>\n

Howard Wu, a Bishop, California, resident visiting Boston for the first time, stumbled upon the animal heads on his way to the nearby New England Aquarium and was astonished.<\/p>\n

Wu, who is half Chinese, immediately recognized them as the Chinese zodiac and understood their cultural significance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are just exceptional,\u201d he said as he snapped dozens of pictures. \u201cThey will bring Boston good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2013 A dozen giant bronze animal heads representing the signs of the Chinese zodiac are stopping people in their …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":75203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10542],"class_list":["post-75202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-art-and-culture","tag-circle-of-animalszodiac-heads","mauthors-mark-pratt","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}