Most of Cai’s art is large scale installations or series. This includes works I’ve written about before including the Mushroom Clouds photo series (Tufnell 2012) and the Fireflies Installation of light up petty cabs (“Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies.”). These two are only the beginning of Cai’s wide portfolio of large pieces of art. Cai uses his art to make a point, get a message across, or inspire a certain emotion in the viewers. Can uses unique mediums such as gun powder and fire that really catch the views attention and can inspire fear and sadness as they did in his mushroom cloud series, or inspire wonder as they did at an opening he conducted that ended in the fire department being called as viewers watched on amazed (“Playing with fire.” ). He has also had installations meant to bring joy and disgust, showing the wide range of emotions he has been able to inspire through art. Furthermore, Cai tends to have a message with his art, he uses it to make a point. He once took a stance against pollution with an installation that grotesquely showed the effect it has on animals (“China’s Pollution Crisis Inspires an Unsettling Art Exhibit”). This is what I think relates him back to a lot of the art we have studied so far in class: it all had a larger meaning, it was being used to make a point. Like the Woodblocks that represented the Communist Party and what they stood for or the paintings of Mao depicting him as one of the people to inspire trust.

Cai draws on the influence of these artists who work to make a point and inspire thought through large scale installation pieces. This paper will examine that. It will look at how Cai creates his work with the audience’s emotional reaction in mind and how the lifelike style and interactiveness of Cai’s different works can help to intensify the emotional response of the viewers.

China’s Pollution Crisis Inspires an Unsettling Art Exhibit 2014. Washington, D.C.: NPR. https://search.proquest.com/docview/2149163363?accountid=14637.

“Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies.” Association for Public Art., accessed May 8, 2020, https://www.associationforpublicart.org/project/cai-guo-qiang-fireflies/. 

Ben Tufnell, ‘Atomic Tourism and False Memories: Cai Guo-Qiang’s The Century with Mushroom Clouds: Art & Environment’, in Tate Papers, no.17, Spring 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/17/atomic-tourism-and-false-memories-cai-guo-qiangs-the-century-with-mushroom-clouds, accessed 8 May 2020.

“Playing with fire.” Economist, April 5, 2003, 94. The Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2015 (accessed May 8, 2020). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/GP4100336459/ECON?u=nysl_ca_unionc&sid=ECON&xid=b6bb28dd. 

This link shows an installation Cai did in 2017 in Philadelphia. It was his biggest installation in the United States in the past decade before. The installation was entitled “Fireflys” and was 27 pedicabs decorated with colorful lanterns of all shapes made in Cai’s home province in China and brought over to the U.S. This work was commissioned to celebrate the centennial of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and Cai was successful in drawing the public’s eye to this celebration by allowing them to ride in these pedicabs along the parkway.

I picked this piece to talk about for today’s blog post in order to show that Cai’s work goes above and beyond gunpowder. He also uses lights and colors to portray his messages. I think this installation is a good contrast to the mushroom cloud photographs that I had talked about previously. Giving Cai a light and celebratory side to his work, something that lifts people up as opposed to reminding them of past tragedies.

Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies

For my analysis of a piece of my artist’s work, I am picking an entire series of photographs, because it seems the artist saw them as a group and not individual works. This series is entitled The Century with Mushroom Clouds and is photographs of gunpowder explosions he made to look like mushroom clouds taken across the United States. Locations included Manhattan, the Great Salt Lake in Utah and the atomic bomb testing site in Nevada. These pieces are all photographs of Cai’s chosen medium gunpowder. The pictures are all taken in a way that you can see not only the gunpowder but also the scenery of the place it was set off along with the artist himself with his back turned to look towards his work. 

Can is famously known for his use of gunpowder to create art. Gunpowder was originally invented in China as an elixir of life and then later on used as an explosive (Monroe). This gives a sort of dual meaning to Cai’s work here, where he is portraying gunpowder as the most deadly explosion known to man, the mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb, yet made out of a substance invented to heal. According to the artist he believes that “the mushroom cloud was one of the most important symbols of the twentieth century” (Tufnell, 2012), in that now it is seen as a symbol of power and destruction more than it is inflicting it (since his little gunpowder clouds where essentially harmless and just for show). He compares this to the Great Wall of China, in that while it does not keep enemies out it is a vital sign of power and if it were to be destroyed would have a bigger emotional impact than military (Tufnell, 2012). The most moving place, I think, that he photographed one of his mushroom clouds at the Nevada Nuclear Test site. He tells a story of how when he set it off the military personnel that had escorted him were so shocked they called their supervisors, who called their supervisors and so on until it reached the White House. However, when they realized it was just gunpowder from firecrackers they let it go (Tufnell, 2012). This antidote goes to show how just a meaningless firecracker explosion can trigger such panic simply because of what it is reminiscent of. 

The Century with Mushroom Clouds: Project for the Twentieth Century (Manhattan) 1996
Realised in New York City, looking towards Manhattan, 20 April 1996
Gunpowder and cardboard tube

https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/17/atomic-tourism-and-false-memories-cai-guo-qiangs-the-century-with-mushroom-clouds

The Century with Mushroom Clouds: Project for the 20th Century (Nevada Test Site)
1996
Realized at Nevada Test Site, February 13, 1996, approximately 3 seconds
Gunpowder (10 g) and cardboard tube
[Ephemeral] https://caiguoqiang.com/projects/projects-1996/century-with-mushroom-clouds/

The rest of the series can be seen on Cai’s website here

Munroe, Alexandra. “Cai Guo-Qiang Drawing for the Century with Mushroom Clouds: Project for the 20th Century.” Guggenheim., last modified -03-26T20:41:35+00:00, accessed Apr 16, 2020, https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/map/parts-and-wholes.

Ben Tufnell, ‘Atomic Tourism and False Memories: Cai Guo-Qiang’s The Century with Mushroom Clouds: Art & Environment’, in Tate Papers, no.17, Spring 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/17/atomic-tourism-and-false-memories-cai-guo-qiangs-the-century-with-mushroom-clouds, accessed 17 April 2020.