Cai Guo-Qiang was born in 1957 in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China. He now lives and works in New York. He attended the Shanghi Drama Institute from 1981 to 1985 and studied stage design. He also attended the Institute for Contemporary Art.
When living in Japan from 1986 to 1995, Cai Guo-Qiang explored the properties of gunpowder in his artwork, starting and leading the development of his signature explosion events. For his work, Cai draws on a wide variety of material, symbols, and traditions. Including elements of feng shui, Chinese medicine and philosophy, pictures of dragons and tigers, roller coasters, computers, vending machines and gunpowder.
Cai’s father was a painter, historian, and bookstore owner who also liked to do calligraphy. His father prompted him to read the western classics knowing full well of his Marxist thinking.
The reason that Cai choose to use gunpowder as his preferred medium is because it was not a normal medium that was used in art. He thought that is was perfect material for showing both frustration and respect. It incorporated both violence and beauty, thus making it his signature trademark.
In 2008, Cai Guo-Qiang was the first artist of Chinese nationality to ever have a one man retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
He was also featured in a solo exhibition at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar in 2011.
The use of gunpowder in Cai’s work brings deep meaning. The material that Cai used was put together with a lot of different minerals that took hundreds of thousands of years to completely form and be able to be used. It is an element of traditional Chinese medicine that was thought to help make one never experience death. In other words they were trying to make people immortal with this medicine that they were creating. The connection between the ephemeral and the immortal, of bringing together heaven and earth, is a key factor for the creator/artist.
Cai believes that the destruction brings construction to life-which runs in a perpetual cycle. Whether seen through eyes of the political, the spiritual, or the personal. this sphere of life and death is tangible in all of his work. His explosive methods became a metaphor for the dance. One of Cai’s quotes says,” I am exploring the connection to unseen power.”
Cai thinks that everyone has the ability to be an artist. He often times makes very large scale projects with the communities of people, allowing participation by local artist and everyday people to help further the ideas of communal healing, political unity, and inspire mans reflection on his role as both individuals and being a part of a group.
Spirituality and its link to both the seen and unseen universes, is a constant source of inspiration for the artist who dives into the history of Chinese traditions, which include the following: Taoism, Buddhism, Feng Shui, Qi Gong, Confucianism and other practices. Cai uses these these to help explore and find fodder for his work. His use of large amounts of black and muddied monochrome color represents the cleanliness of the undistracted spiritual.
“Cai Guo-Qiang Overview and Analysis.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist-cai-guo-qiang.htm.
Kuiper, Kathleen. “Cai Guo-Qiang.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 31 Mar. 2014, www.britannica.com/biography/Cai-Guo-Qiang.
“Cai Guo-Qiang.” Art21, art21.org/artist/cai-guo-qiang/.