LOS ANGELES, CA.- Ai Weiwei has launched his Zodiac (2018) LEGO portrait series at the new Jeffrey Deitch space in Los Angeles (on view through January 5, 2019). These colorful works are made entirely of small LEGO pieces and demonstrate the artist’s continued interest in the zodiac animal concept. This latest body of work also builds on the success of his internationally acclaimed Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Bronze and Gold sculpture series. The Zodiac (2018) LEGO portraits feature the twelve traditional Chinese zodiac animal heads in the foreground with select scenes from his Study of Perspective (1995 – present) series of photographs in the background.

The Zodiac LEGO series will also be featured as part of the solo exhibition Ai Weiwei: Unbroken at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto, Canada (on view February 28 – June 2, 2019).

Ai Weiwei began thinking about yet another version of the zodiac animals shortly after his creation of the sculptures, and since 2012 he worked on several possible designs. The Zodiac (2018) LEGO series furthers on the theme of the Zodiac Heads (2010) sculptures and presents a bold, bright, and playful re-interpretation of the zodiac by employing thousands of LEGO bricks as a contemporary material that extends the life of these ancient animal motifs. The Zodiac (2018) series continues Ai Weiwei’s tendency toward the accumulation of materials, a creative method the artist has employed for many of his best-known works. His interest in amassing and collecting connects with his ongoing interest in how individuals relate to society through experience. Ai Weiwei’s use of LEGO bricks is a poignant example of his art practice and the reconfiguration of these elements, transforming the narrative and nature of this medium.

Speaking of the ideas and inspiration behind the original zodiac heads, Ai Weiwei comments: “All twelve images are familiar for me, because I was a collector, and in history they appear in different objects—jade, stone carvings and two-dimensional designs, everywhere.” Like much of Ai Weiwei’s work, the Zodiac (2018) LEGO series offers a subtle commentary on the past in his modern artistic vernacular. In reference to the subject of this work, the artist goes on to say: “I think it’s something that everyone can have some understanding of, including children and people who are not in the art world.” He states: “When Andy Warhol painted Mao in the 1960s and 1970s, I don’t think many people understood Mao, either—it was just this image that people knew, like Marilyn Monroe or somebody. So, they might see these zodiac animals like that—like Mickey Mouse. They’re just animals. Eleven real animals and one mystic animal.”

Ai Weiwei’s Zodiac (2018) LEGO series is a sister project that connects with his Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads: Bronze and Gold (2010) sculpture series. The Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads has established itself as one of the most popular public artworks in the history of global contemporary art, having been exhibited at over 44 international venues and counting since the official launch of the series in New York in 2011. The Zodiac Heads (2010) sculptures have been seen by millions of people worldwide, becoming one of the most viewed artworks of all time and surpassing popular exhibits such as “The Family of Man,” a ground-breaking post-war photography exhibition that opened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1955, and “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty,” shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 2011 and the V&A, London in 2014.

Designed in the 18th century by two European Jesuits serving in the court of the Qing dynasty [1644 – 1911] Emperor Qianlong, the twelve zodiac animal heads originally adorned a fountain and functioned as a clock in the magnificent European gardens of the Yuanming Yuan. In 1860, the Old Summer Palace was ransacked by French and British troops and the heads were pillaged. By re-interpreting these objects as contemporary works of art, both Ai Weiwei’s Zodiac (2018) and Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (2010) projects focus attention on his exploration of the ‘fake’ and the ‘copy’ in relation to the original, and his use of LEGO’s represents yet another iteration of this important historical narrative.