The motif Cats and Dogs reflects on a decisive period in Ai’s work, from his return to Beijing in 1993 after a decade-long stay in New York to building his Caochangdi home and studio on the Beijing outskirts in 1999. He gives the finger to the Forbidden City, just as he did in his Studies of Perspective, where his outstretched middle finger measured sights around the world. The word “FUCK” is another familiar trope of Ai’s Beijing years, one he spelled as a huge neon sign in his studio garden. Neolithic vases branded with the Coca-Cola logo rest on Ming and Qing Dynasty tables crafted together in contorted shapes. The works are depicted in this papercut as they would be displayed at the studio, surrounded by animals, including the dogs and countless cats who freely roam the house and garden.