Brilliant Ideas Episode #30:
Cai Guo-Qiang

Cai Guo-Qiang raises questions about various issues of the modern society through his works. The artist’s passion is reflected in the artworks, such as a performance of scattering gunpowder on a sketch of a particular subject matter to complete a drawing, or a work that includes a tens-of-meter wide drawing hung from the ceiling and reflected by a pond filled with olive oil; through these artworks, he constantly questions about the harmony of life and art, focusing on what exists and what disappears, light and darkness, and yin(陰) and yang(陽). While casting philosophical questions through his works, the artist is highly active in diversifying the scale and creating methods of his works. Presenting drawings in which gunpowder is used, elaborate sculpture pieces, large-scaled explosion and installation works, his attempts at artwork creation continue to advance without hesitation. Among the numerous works, what imprinted his name on the Chinese modern art scene would be the gunpowder drawing series. His distinctive Oriental paintings drawn on paper with gunpowder rather than ink show a variety of phases: when gunpowder laid on paper in a certain design is set on fire and explodes, the flames rising from the gunpowder becomes a piece of drawing; when the rising flames and smoke is quickly covered with a cloth to extinguish the fire, the traces of the exploded gunpowder also becomes a drawing, along with flames and smoke of various colors remaining as a part of the work.

Cai Guo-Qiang held a retrospective in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2008 for the first time as a Chinese artist. In the exhibition titled <Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe>, which is a first-person narration, the artist sported his competence through large-scaled installation works including hundreds of stuffed animals and a row of cars tumbling down, along with his media artworks.
In the same year, he was selected as the Director of Visual and Special Effects for the opening and closing ceremonies of the ‘2008 Summer Olympics’ in Beijing, and lighted up the sky of Beijing with his grand fireworks, firming his position as an artist who represents his nation. Though he was already a world-known artist at the time of the ‘Olympics’, he applied for working for the opening and closing ceremonies to raise the artistic level of the event held in his home country to make it an international and contemporary artwork. Coming through a competition of 400 to 1, the artist played an important role in enhancing the artistic position of China, and the works he presented at the opening ceremony is still remembered by many people.

When people discuss about the Chinese contemporary art scene, Cai Guo-Qiang is mentioned as one of the important artists who have influence. Most of his works focus on the current situation in China: Maoist, Socialist concepts. Especially, his “gunpowder drawing” strongly reflects Mao Zedong’s belief “destroy nothing, create nothing.” His works also include a wide narrative, traditions, Chinese medicine, science, flora and fauna, fireworks.
Cai Guo-Qiang is a Chinese artist who was born in 1957 and he currently lives and works in New York. The artist was influenced by his father who was a calligrapher and traditional painter and worked in a bookstore. Through this background, he was exposed to Western literature and traditional Chinese art. He has had several solo exhibitions including exhibitions at the Yokohama Museum of Art in Japan, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles(MoCA), the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. He has also had the honor of being given the golden lion prize at the “48th Venice Biennale.”