Though Cai Guo-Qiang has become well known over the years for his multimedia art pieces, and his critiques on Chinese wars, he, like any artist, had to start somewhere, and for him it was by creating paintings that reflected themes of traditional Chinese artwork, but by using gunpowder instead of paint. “Cai Guo-Qiang says his favorite artistic moment is the pregnant pause between the lighting of the fuse and the detonation of the gunpowder. “There is a pressure in it to be preserved, and then it explodes,” he says. “This moment belongs just to the artist and the work.” (The Pyrotechnic Imagination, The New York Times) Cai first began to use gunpowder while he was home in Quanzhou. He kept up with this and continued exploring the effects of gunpowder while he lived in Japan until 1995. The most interesting fact about his use of gunpowder is that it was what lead him to what he is most commonly known for today, which is the work he does with explosives. Cai does not only use the gunpowder as a way to add themes of destruction and war to his images, he also uses it as a way to work with performance art, buy igniting the gunpowder in front of his audiences to create a different style of painting that will leave a lasting impression. This being said, my exhibition will focus in on the earliest works of Cai Guo-Qiang, those where he uses the gunpowder, to showcase where he started before he developed into the artist who he is today. These pieces are also iconic in the discussion of Mao, Chinese warfare, and other more traditional pieces of art that he attempts to embody in a unique way.

Bibliography:

 

“Artist’s Bio.” Bon Voyage: 10,000 Collectables from the Airport | Cai Guo-Qiang, www.caiguoqiang.com/artists-bio.

Kenney, Nancy. “Cai Guo-Qiang’s Explosive Art, Preserved for the Ages.” The Art Newspaper, The Art Newspaper, 21 Dec. 2018, www.theartnewspaper.com/news/cai-guo-qiang-s-explosive-art-preserved-for-the-ages.

Lubow, Arthur. “The Pyrotechnic Imagination.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Feb. 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/magazine/17Fireworks-t.html.