2008-03-06
The Big Bang: Cai Guo-Qiang
Eddy Soetriyono
C-ARTS profiles Cai Guo-Qiang, the most genuinely avant-garde and “explosive”
Chinese Contemporary artist in the world today, and his mid-career retrospective
at the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York, 22 February - 28 May 2008.
Cai Guo-Qiang will always be remembered as the first Chinese contemporary artist
to achieve world renown. The name of this energetic man, born in 1957 in Quanzhou, Fujian province, will never fade, even under the onslaught of news on the skyrocketing
prices for works by Chinese contemporary painters the likes of Zhang Xiaogang, Fang Lijun, and Yue Minjun.
Migrating to Japan in 1986, and later moving to New York in 1995, Cai Guo-Qiang
is a leading figure among immigrant artists who left China in the later 1980s,
a time when their government had a decidedly unfriendly attitude toward experimental
art (shiyan yishu), including artists such as Gu Wenda, Xu Bing, Huang Yongping, Chen Zhen, as well as curators Fei Dawei, Gao Minglu, Hou Hanru, and Wu Hung.
Cai's achievements, acknowledged by art authorities from all over the world, have
led the Guggenheim Museum to mount a mid-career retrospective, designed as a site-specific
exhibition that will encompass 4 early works, 18 explosion events, 10 installations,
13 gunpowder drawings, and 7 social projects based on the no less than 150 major
works spanning the artist's two-decade career.
“Cai Guo-Qiang is a transnational artist of extraordinary creative vision. The
Guggenheim is pleased to present Cai’s retrospective, which examines the full scale and complexity of his art and science
of transformation,” says Thomas Kerns, Director Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation.
The exhibition itself is entitled, “I Want to Believe”—a slogan popularized by the TV series, The X-Files. “For Cai, art is the experience of believing in something that is unseen, or rather,
exists beyond belief,” says Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator of Asian Art, Solomon
R. Guggenheim Museum.
Projects for Extraterrestrials
Cai is best known for the “explosion events” he began performing before live audiences
around 1989 in Japan. These events lasted a matter of seconds; they were intensely
dramatic. At the same time they were underscored by metaphorical narratives that
expressed the artist's interest in a range of social, cultural, and political
issues at multiple levels. Thus, the explosion events proliferated into a linked
series of works over an extended period of time. “In Japan,” Cai said, “I began
a series of works that became known as Projects for Extraterrestrials.” The third work of this series, executed in Pourrieres, Aix-en-Provence, France in 1990, landed his name in the international art world
with a resounding bang.
“When I came to Japan, my encounters with the theories of 20th century astrophysics were very significant to me. The concepts of the big bang,
black holes, the birth of stars, what is beyond the universe, time tunnels, how
to leap over great distances of time and space and dialogue with something infinitely
far away—these ideas were still not commonly in circulation in China at the time.
They were an eye-opener for me. At the same time, many of these ideas have similarities
with traditional Chinese views, with which I was familiar, of metaphysics and
the universe. I wanted my explosions to take place in a vast open space, as if
designed to be seen from well above the earth,” said Cai, who sought out and conversed with the famous physicist, Stephen Hawking in
1990.
In the extraterrestrials series, the artist alludes to the existence of super
intelligent alien beings. According to Cai, art is an experience of believing in something that doesn't exist, or exists
as another reality. Along with allusions to the supernatural and UFOs, Cai's explosion works draw freely from historical legends, folk myths, images of apocalypse
and healing, the Big Bang, Black Holes, and terrorist acts—all variously orchestrated
to poke, titillate, and challenge our habitual modes of thought. ...read more on C-Arts Magazine (ISSUE#02) read more in POINT OF VIEW @ C-ARTS VOLUME-02
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HIGHLIGHTS
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2011-03-30
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Van Gogh Alive – the Exhibition set to open on 16 April 2011
Singapore (30 March 2011) In commemoration of Van Gogh’s birth date today, the ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands announced that it will host the world touring premiere of Van Gogh Alive – the Exhibition. Visitors will get to experience Vincent Van Gogh’s art work come alive in an exhibition that will combine the latest in sound and projection technology using images of Van Gogh’s masterpieces.
... read more. |
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2011-01-05
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Works by Vincent Leow A mid-career survey of Vincent Leow’s oeuvre marking a new direction in the artistic practice of Leow,
... read more. |
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2011-01-05
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Organized by Hou Hanru in collaboration with ShContemporary 9th September, 2010
... read more. |
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2031-01-01
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An interesting exploration into art in Singapore by nineteen artists, including seniors like Tang Da Wu, Jimmy Ong and Zai Kuning “who have lived
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2010-10-06
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The installations of Java’s Machine: Phantasmagoria by Augustinus Kuswidananto (a.k.a. Jompet) have been shown in a number of variations, exploring syncretism or strategies to reconcile
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2010-10-06
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Filipino artist Bembol Dela Cruz presents the concept of art reflecting art, with an explosive narrative that carves life out
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2010-10-06
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Islamic art in Indonesia used to be associated with religious calligraphy only, but in 2009 Lawangwangi’s exhibition of Contemporary Islamic Art showed that calligraphy is just a form of language.
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SPONSORED
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EMERGING ARTIST
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 There is a new epidemic trend in the contemporary art of Asia sweeping through the population of younger artists: Animamix Art.
Amalia Kartika Sari
Each artist has a full right, and at the same time an obligation, to explore forms and ideas continuously, although naturally there will be many obstructions and challenges along the way.
Hayatudin
“A community is often proud of a certain building, viewing it with a sense of grandeur. Meanwhile, a range of monumental idioms are often used to mark great moments in history.
Edo Pillu
 From different generations and cultural backgrounds, S Teddy D and Daniel Flanagan present together their collaboration on Transubstantiation.
Daniel Flanagan
From different generations and cultural backgrounds, S Teddy D and Daniel Flanagan present together their collaboration on Transubstantiation.
S Teddy D
 Not unlike other Filipino-Americans who journey to the Philippines to learn more about their roots, Hanna Pettyjohn undertook such a passage in reverse.
Hanna Pettyjohn
I do not wish to become a president, professor, doctor, governor, celebrity, corruptor, politic expert or anything else.
Nyoman Darya
Solo Exhibition:
1998 Urban Personality Exhibition, Chongqing, China
2001 Hangzhou Jincai Gallery
He Wei-Na
 Ong-Arj’s painting has point out thoroughly content in a society condition today. Even it express through looks weird human image.
Ong-Arj Loeamornpagsin
 Fazar paints with his heart. He believes that his interpretation is like “worship”. Any composition existing in his painting is his effort of concretizing what he feels.
Fajar Roma Agung Wibisono
 With great imagination, he has been using a very unique artistic language to express his very much primitive and strong emotion on the surrounding characters.
Yang Pei Jiang
 In Ardana’s works garlic becomes most artistic in various ways it is rendered whether it is presented individually or in groups of bulbs, cut open, blown up, its thin and transparent layers peeled, as well as severed and torn.
Dewa Ngakan Ardana
Filippo Amato Sciascia (born at Palma, Di Montechiaro, Italy, 1972) will present his solo exhibition of his recent works titled Lux Lumina at Kendra Gallery of Contemporary Art from the 12th December 2009 – 14th January 2010.
Lux Lumina
 Hui Xin’s art addresses both the phenomenon of our constant need for visual stimuli, as well as our desire to be surrounded by objects that give us pleasure. His new paintings and sculptures bring out a dichotomy between naive happiness and adult-themed amusements.
Hui Xin
Since childhood, Nano has enjoyed reading comics, even producing his own comic book in junior high school. Comics became the first visual art Nano came to know.
Nano Warsono
2002:"Ilusi Koran", Semarang Gallery, Semarang. "Transisi", Bentara Budaya Yogyakarta.
Budi Ubrux
 Selected Solo Exhibition
2005:“Paradoks Batas”, Edwin Galeri, Jakarta. 2003: “Painthink”, Edwin Galeri, Jakarta.
F. Sigit Santoso
 He got The Special Award From The 25th Exhibition of Contemporary art in 2008 and winner Prize from 11th Panasonic Contemporary Painting Competition when he postgraduate.
Chalermpon Ratanakomonwat
 The inspiration behind his recent paintings came in 2005 while he was observing his second child was a son. People say that when babies sleep they are guarded by angels. This common experience evoked a wave of questions: Was the baby dreaming? What was he dreaming about? What was he feeling?
WAHYU GEIYONK
 “Many artists like to ponder on the past and the present through the history of human civilization,” says young artist Wang Mian. “With pieces of information and inspiration they
WANG MIAN
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