Wednesday, November 7, 2007

cai guo-qiang


cai guo-qiang and the best use of gunpowder in all the land, EVER. you MUST check out the video of him creating "descending wolves" in front of a crowd at the guggenheim. WOW.


how very original. i love his work. it stopped me in my tracks and made me talk out loud to myself. i feel like high-tailing somewhere right now to see it in person.

about the artist..."Cai initially began working with gunpowder to foster spontaneity and confront the suppression that he felt from the controlled artistic tradition and social climate in China at the time. While living in Japan from 1986 to 1995, Cai explored the properties of gunpowder in his drawings, an inquiry that eventually led to his experimentation with explosives on a massive scale, and the development of his signature explosion events, exemplified in his series, Projects for Extraterrestrials. These explosion projects, both wildly poetic and ambitious at their core, aim to establish an exchange between viewers and the larger universe around them."


there are all kinds of videos on the site. be sure to check out some of the large scale explosion projects. great artist and great website. he really invites you in with the videos. i love it!

all photographs via cai guo-qiang.

4 comments:

Map Finder said...

Oh my goodness, all of these pictures are just amazing. Japan is amazing too.

If you get a chance, check out my blog sometime at eight-thirty.blogspot.com.

Di Overton said...

AAArgh! I can't get the videos to work on my stupid laptop. Those images are so tempting. I will have to wait for Harvey to let me on his.

bioephemera said...

That is really amazing. Great find! The suspended tiger is especially gut wrenching yet lovely.

Anonymous said...

I need to see this exhibition - it looks incredible. thank you for sharing. it!