The Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy has announced the completed installation of a new public art commission on the Greenway leading visitors to the Essex Street Gate at the entrance to Chinatown. The artwork, titled Year of the Pig, is the Greenway’s fifth annual Chinese Zodiac installation.
Sculptor Elliott Kayser’s Year of the Pig consists of eight pig sculptures located along the Greenway. Conservancy Executive Director Jesse Brackenbury said this format of multiple pieces adds a unique twist to this year’s Chinese Zodiac art. Kayser said about the exhibit:
“I like to imagine visitors discovering one pig, then another, curiosity prompting them to explore the park and into Chinatown.”
Six of the eight sculptures will be painted and glazed with unique patterning of one of the 48 native Chinese pig breeds still in existence today. From central China, three varieties of commonly called “two-end-black”pigs; from the TaiHu valley comes the Ba Xuyen, a pink pig with black hair; and two black-brown breeds that hail from Wuzhishan and Tibet. The two pigs at the entrance to Chinatown will be glazed red as a stylized interpretation of this traditional zodiac symbol.
The installation will run from February 2019 through January 2020.
Past zodiac curations on the Greenway have included Risa Puno’s community storytelling abacus, Year of the Dog (2018), Chis Templeman’s 3D rooster printer Make and Take (2017), Don Kennell’s 12-foot Monkey See (2016), and Kyu Seok Oh’s paper-mache Wandering Sheep (2015).
