Last night saw the bitter-sweet launch and unveiling of Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei’s exhibition – Circle of Animals / Zodiac Heads at Somerset House. The somewhat monumental installation comprises of twelve bronze animal heads, re-creations of the traditional Chinese zodiac sculptures – originally at the fountain of Yuanming Yuan in Beijing.
The darkness behind this moment is that Ai Weiwei was arrested 40 days ago as he tried to board a flight in Beijing and therefore unable to attend the event – his whereabouts still remain completely unknown and Twitter and blog have been shut down. To learn more about Ai Weiwei, please see below a BBC documentary (many thanks to Dan at TOKYO DANDY for sharing this with me) under the cut. If you are posting this on Twitter, make sure to include the hashtag #freeaiweiwei
