Cai guo-qiang artist statement

Summary of Cai Guo-Qiang

Rising from the ashes of China's Cultural Revolution, Cai Guo-Qiang forged his way into international art stardom as one of the first Chinese artists to expose the world to contemporary dialogues in Chinese art.

Cai guo-qiang artist statement

Utilizing the groundbreaking mediums of gunpowder and fireworks to synthesize a new form of performance and spectacle into the art-making process, his work is renowned for its ability to leverage tension and fear toward a common consideration of the beauty in destruction.

His unique artistic language, in which art becomes a reckless action, has catapulted him into a singular and inimitable role as one of our most innovative modern artists.

Accomplishments

• The use of gunpowder in Cai's work carries deep meaning.

  The material, comprised of minerals that took hundreds of thousands of years to form, has a long lineage in Chinese history as an element of traditional Chinese medicine believed to help make one immortal. The relationship between the ep