Cai Guo-Qiang

Albion/Michael Hue-Williams Fine Art Ltd., London
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Sharmini Pereira, Cai Guoqiang: Man, Eagle and Eye in the Sky, London, 2004, p.150-151, illustrated in color

This free-standing screen is made from six pieces of plywood which are reinforced with a framework on the reverse and joined with three hinges. The piece itself is made up of three free-standing sections with two panels in each section and there appears to be painted paper which covers the plywood on the front. On the extreme edges there is a little dust and perhaps some scuff marks and on the sides there may be some finger prints, however for the most part there are no damages, restorations or discolorations to the paint layer. The paint layer on the surface is delicate yet this is a well-built and robust piece which overall is in good state.
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Cai Guo-Qiang has made astounding inroads into cultures near and far, always taking a piece of his native China with him wherever he goes.   After completing his studies in stage design at the Shanghai Drama Institute in 1985 - training which surely informs his spectacular productions to this day - Cai left China the following year and moved to Japan, where he would remain for nearly a decade.  It was during this time in Japan that he began to experiment with gunpowder and its use in creating magical drawings that were only realized when fire met the powdered incendiary he scattered atop sheets of paper; the resulting fireworks drawings were later attached to screens and canvas.  Cai opted for the medium as it represented a means of release from the strictures of Chinese society at the time; it quite literally stood for an explosive burst of rebellion against a Communist regime that quashed personal freedoms, whether artistic or political.  Now free to express himself as he wished, Cai Guo-Qiang lit a flame that still resonates in his work and ignites the imagination and appreciation of his viewers.

Thanks to the underlying political implications one might read in his work, and no doubt due in large part to his penchant for engaging communities and oft-unheard voices in his ever-more-elaborate projects, Cai soon became a darling of the international art circuit, receiving invitations to participate in biennials and museum exhibitions around the globe.  From his base in Japan, and later New York, where he moved in 1996, he began to develop a new aesthetic vocabulary not in paint or plaster, but in bursts of flame and smoke.  His much-lauded Projects for Extraterrestrials took the artist and his explosive events to cities around the world, and in each new location, Cai worked with local residents whenever possible. 

The powerful six-panel screen Man, Eagle and Eye in the Sky:  Eyes offered here (Lot 31) is the result of an eponymous large-scale collaborative project enacted in Siwa, Egypt, in 2003.  As the central component of the endeavor, Cai invited hundreds of local schoolchildren to freely decorate 300 kites crafted in the famous kite-making center of Weifang, China, in three distinct shapes:  a human form, an eagle, and an eye.  Cai chose these shapes because they are immediately recognizable anywhere in the world while at the same time resonating with the cultural history of Egypt, steeped as it is in hieroglyphs and mythology.  Cai shared stories of China's own tales and legends, what these symbols mean in China, and how the children might best use their paint to the most successful ends. For example, "The paint should not be too thick because it will alter the kite's form and weight, which will then affect how the kite flies."  And it was this very flight that was of the utmost importance, for when many of the kites were flown during a special community kite-flying festival that unfolded over five days, the sky became a blank canvas marked with the soaring artistic outpouring of the participating community.  The festival drew residents out from all over town and became a bonding experience for the locals, just as it was an opportunity for international exchange between the locals, Cai, and his staff.  At the end of the festival, about 100 of the kites were gathered and connected into a dragon-like chain, sprinkled with gunpowder, fused and exploded.  The work on offer was subsequently assembled from the project materials and refers to the series of eye-shaped kites that once soared over the Western Sahara desert. 

Majestic in its depiction of the remnants of Chinese paper kites, gunpowder-drawn Egyptian motifs, and joyous childhood dreams, the multi-panel work captures the ephemerality of this significant community project that transpired over an all-too-short week.  The splashes of pigment on the screen are writ large, having literally been burned into the paper as the gunpowder exploded.  The vestiges of the eyes that remain have an oracular presence, peering out in benevolent rapture like the all-knowing eyes of the Sphinx or the Egyptian gods etched in profile upon tomb walls in the Valley of the Kings.  The magical nature of ancient Egypt is here combined with the equally myth-laden culture of China, the two fused together in the crescendo of fiery release witnessed by the project participants and viewers of Cai's drawing today.

Cai Guo-Qiang continues his studies and experiments with gunpowder, although he currently has his sights set on even larger endeavors.  In addition to a February 2008 retrospective exhibition at New York's Guggenheim Museum that will see many of the artist's large-scale sculptures united, Cai is also busy in his new role as the director of visual and special effects for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.  Whatever project Cai decides to enact for this spectacular event, he will undoubtedly light a fire that will resonate around the world, creating a unifying energy that people from every corner of the world can celebrate.  Beginning his career in China's politically repressive culture more than two decades ago, Cai Guo-Qiang will return to the very place that inspired his first explosions, perhaps for a cathartic homecoming.  As the fireworks and gunpowder of this artist-cum-diplomat sparkled in the watchful eyes of Man, Eagle and Eye in the Sky, so, too, do they continue to sparkle in our own.

-Eric C. Shiner