Cai Guo-Qiang in "Power" - Season 3 - "Art in the Twenty-First Century" | Art21

CAI GUO-QIANG in

In the twenty-first century

My work is sometimes like the poppy flower

It has this almost romantic side

But yet, it also represents poison

Gun powder

From it's very essence,

you can see so much of the power of the universe,

how we came to be.

You can express these grand ideas about the cosmos.

Very epic and heroic,

but at the same time it's used for such destruction.

Gun powder possesses a physical danger anyone who is near it.

But with time you get to know the material.

First you have to accept that it's uncontrollable.

And then work with it.

I've worked with the material so long,

that I've gained an understanding with how it works

My way of doing it is just to flow with the material.

To let it take me where it wants to go.

So I continuously want it to give me problems.

Give me obstacles to overcome.

This whole process of making drawing is very much like lovemaking.

From the very beginning of laying down the paper,

it's like laying down the sheets on the bed.

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And it's a very long process.

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Always working towards a final goal.

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And all the time there's this feeling that you just want it to explode.

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To finish.

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But you're afraid that maybe it's too early,

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maybe it's not the best time yet.

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Maybe you need to work on it a little more.

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And then afterwards, you either have great satisfaction

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or you have disappointment as to your entire performance.

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You can talk all day about the ancient philosophies

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and modern philosophies, art history,

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criticism, theory, subject matter, historical context,

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contemporary, post-modernism, form, representation.

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All these things can be discussed, but in the end,

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it's really this on sight performance so to speak,

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that really makes a work.