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 a poison

Gun powder

From its 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
for 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
of how it works

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

To let it take me where it wants me 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.

And it's a very long process.

Always working towards a final goal.

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

to finish.

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

maybe it's not the best time yet,

maybe you need to work on it
a little more.

And then afterwards,
you either have great satisfaction

or you have disappointment as to
your entire performance.

You can talk all day about the ancient
philosophies and modern philosophies

art history, criticism, theory,
subject matter, historical context,

contemporary, post-modernism, form,
representation.

All these things can be discussed

but in the end,

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

that really makes a work.

What I'm using here is a sort of a
fold out sketchbook

It's not so much a scrawl,
but traditionally it's

always been used for people
to record their thoughts.

Almost as in a journal,
or a diary format.

In Chinese,

we actually say:
''Reading a painting''

Reading a picture

Because it's actually page by page,
section by section

That you're reading this.

Not just looking at it.

These 'folder books' are very similar in
this aspect to the scrawls.

The longhand scrawls are very traditional,
in Chinese painting.

Here I like to show you what my father has
painted on silk.

A very long scrawl.

Sometimes I see my explosion projects
almost like these scrawls.

Ones you open it,

it opens up the universe, in that it
seems boundless.

As the explosion project unfolds,
it's like opening up the scrawl.

But then it disappears.

And yet, it's pregnant with all kinds
of possibilities.

What really influenced me the most,
are these very tiny matchbox paintings

that my father used to make.

He would paint these small landscape
paintings with his ink pen.

I saved some of these from that time.

When I was little and I would ask what
he was painting.

He might point to one of them
and say:

''Ow, this is the sea of our hometown.''

But then I would go back with him to
our home village

and it was nothing like that.

From very early on I understood from
these that art is not about what you say

It's about these other things
that you don't say.

I wouldn't say that the entire exhibition
at MASS MoCA is

like a long scrawls unfolding.

It links to my past.

And it's linked to my culture as well.

When I first saw the exhibition space

I felt that it was like a section of road

A very wide road,
that's been transported here.

Further extending the idea of this path,
or journey

Is very much like taking a walk
along this path.

In the main gallery,

as the first car takes of

tumbling through the air in a very
dreamlike fashion

it lands safely back on it's four
wheels.

Undamaged

Unharmed

Is it just the repetition, it goes
right back to the very first car again.

The video in Times Square
also borrows the image of the car bomb.

This continues cycle suggest that
something might or

might not have happened.

This illusion that we're seeing in front
of us

Ever since September 11th

The idea of terrorism is ever so present.

Always on our minds

This work

obviously has some direct reference
to these conditions that we live in now.

Looking at the work that I've done

I noticed that things are sticking out of
or into objects a lot.

I think this has to do with my
interest in explosion.

But it also has to do with the
aesthetics of pain.

There is a very visual response that
the audience has to the work.

They feel pain when they see the tigers

The tigers are realistically made

But they are completely fake.

It's a stage setting that you're
entering into

It's through visual impact that you
transmit these ideas

And it's through visual impact that
this pain is felt.

You can actually elicit a very direct
response from the audience

A very strong response.

This installation in Washington D.C.

The sunken boat with the broken
ceramic pieces

Shows the power of destruction,
the beauty of destruction.

The aesthetic of decay.

And in this way,

I feel that this work is quite close
to some of the things

that I'm discussing in the pieces at
MASS MoCA as well.

A number of years ago I went to a
factory in Delhua for a visit

And I saw all of these statues that
looked perfectly fine

But they were rejects.

Because of their imperfections, they're
no longer considered diodes.

You know, I thought it was very strange

without these imperfections,
these were figures that people worshiped.

They were send to thousands of homes,
including my own home.

It seemed to arbitrary.

Here, I see them as artwork

They don't hold so much of a diodes power

But if I take one from here and put it in
the studio

I think my emotions will shift very
naturally.

This very fine line defines the nature
of an object.

I really like to hang this up

It defies gravity

Because I think I don't like the
heaviness of things.

The piece in São Paulo is obviously
a plane made out of a vine.

We have these sharp objects confiscated
from the São Paulo airport

stuck all over it.

Again it looks like it's infected with
all this pain.

I travel all the time and I'm always
flying in and out of airports

There are times when you just kind of
have to stop yourself and think..

Do I have weapons in my pockets?

You know

Even nail clippers,
I have a few confiscated.

So for this piece,
we used all local materials.

And we borrowed all the pieces
from the airport.

Behind all this is a very earnest and
frank look at our society today.

And a cultural political issues
that we have to deal with.

It really is an honest reflection
of our world today.

It's easy for us to depict things of
this physical world.

But it's very difficult to depict things
that are not seen,

but that have a profound effect on us.

And that's something that I'm
continuously exploring and trying to form.

I take a lot from the ancient Chinese
philosophies.

These are very much infused in the
art making process.

Maybe everything does not have
to be resolved.

Sometimes you can allow uncertainties
to exist.

The ever changing, never constant

These are the kinds of ideas to
understand the world.

To learn more about Art:21,
art in the twenty first century

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