TRACES AND OTHER IMPACTS

THE WORK OF CAI GUO QIANG

"The car is destined to be a scrap in the end, and so is my work.
As time goes by, my work comes out, dies away. My work explode and melt."
Cai Guo Qiang, Iwaki City Art Museum, 1994

text by Valerie Portefaix
first published in tofu-magazine #3, fall 2000

The Century With Mushroom Clouds, Nevada Nuclear Test Site, 1996

Cai Guo Qian has recently attracted the attention of the international art world with a number of exhibitions and happenings. Explosions, bangs, fireworks and soaring dragons characterize his work. From the mid 80s he has placed himself in the middle of interactive performances that multiply layers of contrasting factors — local history, society, geography, climate and their combined evolution over time are all areas that are explored.

Fascinated by the idea of change, and especially with notions of opposition and conflicts, Cai invariably makes reference to a potential dialogue between microcosm and macrocosm. In his work, the two scales cohabit. Local performances are open and belong to everyone; the private space of the museum is used as an extension in the city sky. Gunpowder has been an unprecedented medium that the artist uses to establish this dialogue.

Before executing his art projects, Cai generally produces a series of plan drawings and fixing sketches with Chinese black ink and gunpowder. The use of gunpowder and fuse on paper, as a preliminary to its application on the ground, is like forcing a reality made of hypothesis. Further exploration of the creation process, as seen in "Traces of Ancient Explosions", juxtaposes the peaceful activity of painting with the uncontrollable force of fire. A trace on paper is the first creative action made by the artist.

Historical events are the products of man’s creation. The basic idea of Cai’s oeuvre has to do with the idea of a trace as an episode in history, as a print on reality. To produce a trace is the equivalent of leaving its own trace as a means to authorize the external world to enter the private body and vice versa. In this direction, Cai’s explosion events are like a graffiti artist’s. In effect, they are in some ways anonymous as the individual artist uses pyrotechnics with an active collaboration of technicians and public.

Traces constitute a free subject out of the violence of the explosion itself. Ranging from the huge scale "Project for Extraterrestrials No.10: extend the Great Wall of China  by 10,000 metres" (1993) to the mild "Project for Extraterrestrials No.9 : Foetus Movement II"

Cai’s pyrotechnics are both spectacular and intrinsically confidential. "Project for Extraterrestrials No.10" was completed on the 27 February, 1993, in front of Jiayuguan Fort in the Gobi Desert. The 10,000 metre extension of the wall was made of gunpowder fuses with bags of black gunpowder at three metre intervals which exploded as if they were sending some smoke signals. An audience of about 50 000 spread for 10 kilometres across the vast emptiness of the desert. Just before dark, the fuse was lit and the fire travelled on the earth at a speed of 100 meters in 7 seconds. With the guidance of the little bags of gunpowder, it created a series of pulsing lights, loud sounds and flames. After travelling 15 minutes in the desert, the light disappeared into the distant snow covered-mountains.

Foetus Movement II" was planned on a 10,000 square metres area. Seven earthquake sensors were planted 50 cm under the ground. Around the spots where the sensors were set, gunpowder charges were laid at a depth of 20 centimetres. Gunpowder fuses formed radial links between these charges and the hub. A human sat at the centre and a 2 x 2 metres underground room had been built directly beneath the spot. A seismograph, an electroencephalogram and an electrocardiogram were placed there, and they recorded the CO-vibration and the unity of humans and the earth.

Compared with these spectacular exterior happenings, Cai’s exhibitions might appear too quiet. Working on some methods to show the ephemeral, the artist is now developing an interactive process where the audience still have the capability to make or see something happening.

At the beginning of this year, at his "I am the Y2K bug" solo show at Kunsthal Wien, visitors were challenged to spend time from strolling from one room to another, waiting for the next explosion while smelling the gunpowder traces of the last one. Sketches, along with photographic records and videos are used in the museum space as more tangible materials from the ephemeral. Explosions on the screens show another perception that can be endlessly reproduced. Finally, a disquieting flow of images was created with the video montage "Big Bang, Small Bang". It was a complicated equation of place, process, material and politics, where explosions are used for beauty rather than destruction.

Cai in studio with daughter experimenting the mushroom cloud explosion, 1995.
(photo Wu Hong Hong)

More Projects Of Cai Guo Qiang

[1] Project for Extraterrestrials No.9
Foetus Movement II
A 10,000 square metres area will be used. Seven earthquake sensors will planted 50cm under the ground. Around the spots where the sensors have been set, gunpowder charges will be laid at a depth of 20cm. Gunpowder fuses will form radial links between these charges and the hub. A human will sit at the centre. A 2 x 2 metres underground room will be built directly beneath the spot where the person sits. A seismograph, an electroencephalogram and an electrocardiogram will be placed, and they will record the co-vibration and unity of humans and the earth. The duration of the explosion will be five seconds.

[2] Project for Extraterrestrials No.7
Rebuilding the Berlin Wall
Gunpowder fuses will be placed along the former Berlin Wall to a length of 2,800 metres. The duration of the explosion will be 28 seconds. The wall, which will be rebuilt in a flash of light and smoke at the time of the explosion, will be broadcast by satellite transmission. The broadcast signals will also be transmitted into space. This project reminds people of the existence of walls as a symbol of the restrictions on human beings that we must free ourselves from - through the momentary re-creation of a wall.

[3] Project for Humankind No.3
Inverted Pyramid on Moon
Many historic relics rising to the sky seem to have been built with the idea that humans will leave the earth someday. The pyramids on earth represent the climax of many human civilizations, and at the same time they symbolize the turning point encountered by a great civilization before it is ruined in the end. An inverted pyramid will be placed on the moon in juxtaposition with a pyramid on earth. The two pyramids will face each other across the celestial straits between the earth and moon. The endless interplay between humanity and the cosmos will never end...

[4] Project for Extraterrestrials No.8
Reviving the Ancient Signal Towers
In ancient China, a method was devised for sending messages to distant places with signal fires instead of using messengers on horseback. This project will use the abandoned signal towers along the Silk Road and revive the blazing beacons using gunpowder. The message of co-habitation with nature - rather than a plunder or power struggle - directed to the universe transcends the difference between eras by using the transmission methods of both ancient and modern humans.

[5] Project for Humankind No.2
A Certain Lunar Eclipse
In the future, at a certain lunar eclipse, an illuminated line appears on the darkness of the moon. The light has been created by human beings using gunpowder fuses to simulate the Great Wall as the largest symbol of human civilization on earth. This project, which cannot be realized today, is planned for the humans of the future. At the same time, this project is for awaking the consciousness of today humans who are faced with the destruction of the environment and the imbalance of life on earth.

[6] The Vague Border at the Edge of Time/Space Project
Is there a world between the material and spirit where the two overlap? If there is, where is it located? Is this the plane where this work is situated? This drawing was created by exploding gunpowder placed along the shadows of the artist as they fell on the canvases.

[7] Project for Extraterrestrials No.6
Bigfoot Footprints
Two hundred Bigfoot footprints will be made by pouring paper pulp into a two-meter-long footprint-shaped mold. Gunpowder will be laid in these footprints. The footprints will be placed on the border between two countries for 2,000 metres and connected with gunpowder fuses. With a 20-second series of explosions, the footfalls of Bigfoot will stomp over the border and disappear into the beyond. After the explosion, all the footprints will be collected. Obtaining concurrent visas for the two countries where the project will be carried out will be one of the elements of the piece.

[8] Dragon-Explosion on pleats, Issey Myake, 1998, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain

*Pictures & texts by courtersy of Cai Studio and P3 Art & environment