Cai Guo-Qiang. Photo: Kenryou Gu, courtesy of Cai Studio
Cai Guo-Qiang
PROJECT
Cai Guo-Qiang’s work draws on contemporary social issues in dialogue with a lifelong interest in Eastern philosophy and world history. Cai often uses fragile, volatile and unpredictable materials like gunpowder to create animal imagery, reflecting humanity’s estrangement from nature and capacity for destruction. This spontaneous composition of pink, blue and grey gunpowder ignitions forms a colony of bats. Each bat stares directly at the viewer, its eyes drawing us into the animal’s enigmatic world and all it has observed across time. Through this image, Cai conveys his reaction to historical catastrophes past and present, while pursuing themes of light, spirituality and mysticism.
The acquisition of this artist’s work is supported by John William Fawcett Bequest, and Nigel Peck AM and Patricia Peck Fund
ABOUT
Cai Guo-Qiang is an internationally acclaimed artist, best known for his pioneering use of gunpowder and fireworks as an artistic medium. Drawing from Eastern philosophy, Taoist cosmology and alchemy, Cai’s work bridges the gap between ancient philosophy and contemporary social issues.
Cai has exhibited extensively over the past twenty-five years, including in major solo exhibitions at Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid (Spain), the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (US) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (US). In 2015, Cai realised the explosion event Sky Ladder in his hometown of Quanzhou. The eponymous documentary film, directed by Academy Award winner Kevin MacDonald, was released globally on Netflix. Cai also served as the Director of Visual Effects and Fireworks for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. In 2019, Cai’s work was presented in the NGV’s Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition Cai Guo-Qiang: The Transient Landscape, which was staged alongside Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality.