Ai Weiwei:

It started around 2019. So I want to do a set of zodiacs which relate to every viewer in Chinese understanding. The background of zodiacs is the Qing Dynasty in the Imperial Palace. Actually, it's kind of fixtures in the garden. By 1840, the British has twice invaded China, second time with the French, so they looted the palace and took all those sculptures back to Europe. Years later, about 7 of them appeared in the market. So, China said we will buy it back. You know, it's basically, it's not a Chinese treasure, it's really made in Qing Dynasty by an Italian minister and I think a casted by French. So, it's such a colorful story. I think because there's no complete set, I have to create the other five: dragon, snake, lamb, dog, rooster. So I made those in the same style, then a set of zodiac comes out.