Ai Weiwei Zodiac Heads

The installation which opened this week in the magnificent courtyard of Somerset House includes 12 bronze animal heads, part of the traditional Chinese zodiac sculptures which once adorned the fountain of Yuanming Yuan, an imperial retreat in Beijing.

The installation is part of an International Tour which has started this month in Grand Army Plaza in New York. Ai Weiwei has been missing since being detained by Chinese authorities at Beijing Airport on April 3. Yesterday, members of the panel who were invited by Somerset House to talk about Weiwei's art, including Alan Yentob who interviewed him at the occasion of the opening of his installation in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, all pointed out the uniqueness of his artistic approach.

Ai Weiwei is a very sophisticated and amazing artist who suffered enormously as a child. He became an important global figure expressing his ideas about individual freedom of expression and a Chinese person very attached to his own culture and roots. Until 26 June, 2011.