Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads
Wednesday, July 1, 2026, All Day; additional 29 dates below.
Get up close with Ai Weiwei's Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (2010) at the Olympic Sculpture Park, where you can walk among these monumental sculptures. Consisting of 12 zodiac head sculptures arranged in an arcing semicircle, each animal in Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads stands over ten feet tall and weighs over 1500 pounds. The sculptures are installed in order of the traditional Chinese zodiac cycle: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Boar.
The works reconceive the 12 zodiac heads that decorated an 18th-century Qing imperial fountain before they were looted during the Second Opium War (1856–60). Seven are based on the original heads that have survived, and Ai researched and reimagined the five animals still missing to complete the zodiac. This work embodies Ai’s long-standing questioning of our tendency to value the real over the fake and the original over the copy.
Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads joins over twenty monumental sculptures in the park, including The Eagle (1971) by Alexander Calder, Wake (2004) by Richard Serra, and Seattle Cloud Cover (2004-2006) by Teresita Fernández. See this temporary installation situated in the Ackerly Meadow, just outside of the PACCAR Pavilion at the Olympic Sculpture Park. Seattle’s largest green space, the nine-acre sculpture park, is free and open daily from thirty minutes before sunrise to thirty minutes after sunset.
Upcoming Dates
All Day
- Wed, Jul 1, 2026
- Thu, Jul 2, 2026
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- Wed, Jul 29, 2026
- Thu, Jul 30, 2026
- …and 336 more
Hours
SAM Downtown- Free on the First Thursday of Each Month!
Thursday: 10am-5pm
Asian Art Museum- Free on the Last Friday of Each Month!
Friday: 10am-5pm
Olympic Sculpture Park- Free Always!
Open daily
Opens 30 minutes prior to sunrise
Closes 30 minutes after sunset