The first art sensation of 2017 would seem to be China’s 23-foot-tall Donald Trump-like rooster sculpture.
It’s designed by Seattle-based illustrator and animator Casey Latiolais in honor of the Chinese zodiac, which is set to usher in the year of the rooster on January 28.
The fiberglass statue, located outside a shopping mall in Taiyuan in Shanxi Province, features a Trumpian scowl with bushy eyebrows and a golden helmet of hair. “This was way more yuge than I expected,” wrote Latiolais on Twitter after the statue’s unveiling.
He told the New York Times that he created the design for Beijing Reliance Commercial Land, and had added the Trump-like features of his own accord. According to a Chinese social media news outlet cited by the South China Morning Post, the statue’s egg-shaped body and golden hair symbolize wealth and prosperity for 2017.
Casey Latiolais’s Donald Trump-esque rooster statue for the Chinese New Year. Courtesy of STR/AFP/Getty Images.
The statue has been a hit in China, with numerous knockoffs of the artwork for sale on Taobao, the Chinese eBay, from prices ranging from $43 to $1,739—the latter for a 32-foot-tall inflatable version.
“I think the rooster is very cute and funny, the hairstyle and eyebrows look very much like Donald Trump. I’m sure it will attract a lot of customers,” said Wei Qing of Shenghe Yangtai Business, which is selling replicas of the statue, told CNN.
Trump’s unusual, carefully-manicured coif has also been compared to the feathers of other birds, such as a golden pheasant in a safari park in Hangzhou, China.
Meanwhile, one Russian artist is also looking forward to the Chinese New Year with a rooster sculpture of his own. Mikhail Bopposov, a 56-year-old farmer, has erected an 11.5-foot-tall rooster sculpture in Walba, a remote Siberian village, using excrement from his 17 cows.
The unusual material is perfectly-suited to the region’s sub-zero temperatures, and the piece will be on display through the spring, when it will melt. According to Russian news site RT, Bopposov’s annual Chinese Zodiac poo sculptures are a hit among the locals, who all chipped in to help the artist finish in time for the new year after he injured his leg.