Today I finally made it to the Guggenheim Museum. The museum exterior (and permanent galleries) are currently undergoing a renovation and the main exhibit on view (which was what I went to see) was by Cai Guo-Qiang, a Chinese artist, called “I Want to Believe,” which really enveloped the entire museum. The exhibit pretty much revolved around Cai’s vision of creating beauty through destruction, while focusing greatly on feng-shui through the exhibit.
The centerpiece of the exhibit was titled Inopportune: Stage One. Inspired by 9/11 (and what’s followed) it uses 9 identical cars to depict a car bomb going off. Each car essentially represents a frame in the explosion. The first car looks normal and sits on the ground floor. One by one, the cars rise and higher and higher, increasing their tilt, utlimately twisting 360 degrees and ending up sitting normally on the 6th floor. The actual explosion is simulated using strands of LED’s that shot out from the car at all angles. The colors got more surrealistic as you progress up the ramp. It was really really cool! (photo from Guggenheim website)
You viewed the exhibits primarily along the rotunda ramp. First came a striking boat ruin suspended in the air that was covered with hundreds of arrows and flew a small modern Chinese flag fluttering in the breeze of fan. You see a pack of stuffed tigers covered with arrows with various expressions of pain on their faces. There is a pack of stuffed wolves who race up the ramp, higher and higher they go until they hit a piece of glass and come tumbling down (originally done in Berlin with a piece of glass replicating the Berlin Wall). There was a real shipwreck that was surrounded by a sea of broken pieces of porcelain plates and porcelain Buddhas.
My favorite section was a recreation of a classic Chinese exhibit called “Rent Collection Courtyard.” It was originally comissioned by the Chinese government in 1965 and created by a group of art students (not by Cai) and featured 115 life size figures that depicted the harshness of Chinese life before the Communist Party took over. Here, Cai recreated many of these original figures (and was originally accused of plagirising the original work). But there was a twist. These were set up as a work in progress, with some figures incomplete and others just frames. Many though were so lifelike they looked like they’d start moving any second (especially with their black eyes). They were molded out of clay that was then allowed to dry and crack, creating a really interesting image. (photo from Guggenheim website)
Cai’s drawings were particularly interesting because he used gunpowder as his medium. He would lay gunpowder on paper in a specific pattern and then add elements before detonating the gunpowder. The result on the paper is really unique and beautiful. On series depicted a mushroom cloud, on some created using his gunpowder method and on the others, depicted using a real Japanese mushroom! Many of the projects were enormous, encompassing several screens, and they were all beautifully unique. There was even a dragon created of articles of clothing which then had the gunpowder treatment applied to them.
Cai also specializes in what he calls “Explosion Events.” He uses large scale explosions to create art in unlikely ways. Many of these were depicted by video. For example, there was one which took place in Amsterdam (I think) where he laced explosives between a series of cranes, sending a chain of fire through them in a split second. There was also a video of a project he did in the Gobi Desert to extend the Great Wall 10,000 meters through a long chain of explosives. The smoke that rose from the fire appeared to equal the height and width of the Great Wall. He also specializes in fireworks, and set off specially designed black fireworks in broad daylight to commemorate the Madrid train bombings and created a rainbow (literally) of fireworks on Roosevelt Island in 2002 to mark MoMA’s temporary move to Queens while its new building was constructed. Cai will be involved in the opening and closing ceremonies of this year’s Olympics in Bejing. Keep an eye out for his work!
This really was a fantastic experience and definitely worth the price of admission. The shame is that the exhibit only runs through Wednesday, but I’m glad I was able to see it. Cameras weren’t allowed in, but I did find a YouTube video that covers much of the exhibit and it can be viewed below:
Also, below is a video of one of Cai’s Explosion Events. In this particular one, he sets off a fuse that then races a moving train, ignites a fireball, which in turns ignites a flying kite to carry it to the sky.
