COLLECTION NAME:
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
mediaCollectionId
ArtArtHiAAH~7~7
Visual Resources Teaching Collection
Collection
true
Image Record ID:
aahi0006766
image_record_id
aahi0006766
Image Record ID
false
Work Title (display):
Bird of Light
Image Title:
full view
Work Dates (display):
2004
Work Dates type:
creation
Image Date (display):
2010-05-24
Work Creator (display):
Cai Guo-Qiang (Chinese, born 1957)
Work Creator gender:
male
work_creator_or_agent_gender
male
Work Creator gender
false
Work Creator notes (display):
Chinese installation artist. Cai studied at the Shanghai Drama Institute, completing his degree in stage design in 1985. He is best known for ephemeral, large-scale explosion-works using gunpowdera medium he began to experiment with in China and often explained as a childhood reference to witnessing skirmishes between China and Taiwan along what was known as the Fujian Front. In the 1980s he applied gunpowder to canvas, which he then lit to create bold, charred designs. When Cai emigrated to Japan in 1986, he began to use gunpowder for environmental installations. Since the early 1990s he called these works Projects for Extraterrestrials. Cai believed that most explosions visible from space have been related to war, and that his work sends a non-violent message. A good example is The Horizon from the Pan Pacific: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 14 (1994), executed off the coast of Iwaki, a small town in Japan, where Cai installed a 5000 metre trail of gunpowder in the ocean that illuminated the horizon. The work evoked the experience of living in this small fishing village, where the ocean is a central part of everyday life. Such a conceptually-charged, yet rudimentary application of gunpowder, characterizes Cai's works created in Japan. Coinciding with his move to New York in 1995, Cai began to create installations using other materials and more direct references to his Chinese heritage, such as traditional Chinese medicine (Bringing to Venice What Marco Polo Forgot, 1995) and fengshui (How is your Feng Shui?, 2000). These works reveal a desire to find new applications for Chinese cultural traditions outside China. For example, Bringing to Venice What Marco Polo Forgot consisted of a Chinese junk (boat) transported from the artist's home town of Quanzhou and moored at Palazzo Giustinian-Lolin, a 17th-century merchant's home. Visitors could board the boat for the duration of the exhibition, and in the Palazzo were invited to self-prescribe Chinese medicinal tonics for various ills, which were dispensed from a vending machine. In this work Cai referred to Marco Polo's visits to China, suggesting that the explorer should have brought back Chinese traditional medicine, in addition to his observations of differences between Europe and 13th-century China. Cai continued to create works using gunpowder, but they became much more ambitious in their application of pyrotechnic technology, sometimes involving collaboration with pyrotechnic companies. One such example is Light Cycle (2003), designed for New York's Central Park. The work consisted of three parts: Signal Towers, Light Cycle and White Night, each dependent upon different applications of gunpowder through the use of microchips inside firing shells and computer-operated remote controls. In conjunction with these ephemeral works, Cai also exhibited large-scale drawings made from burning gunpowder on paper. (Grove Art Online accessed 2008-01-30)
Work Style Period:
21st century
work_styleperiod
21st century
Work Style Period
false
Work Style Period:
Contemporary
work_styleperiod
Contemporary
Work Style Period
false
Work Subject:
metaphors
subject
metaphors
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
symbols
subject
symbols
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
artists' materials
subject
artists' materials
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
transformation
subject
transformation
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
beauty
subject
beauty
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
violence
subject
violence
Work Subject
false
Work Subject:
gunpowder
subject
gunpowder
Work Subject
false
Work Worktype:
paintings (visual works)
work_type
paintings (visual works)
Work Worktype
false
Work Category (VRC classification):
paintings
work_category__ucbaahvrc_classification_
paintings
Work Category (VRC classification)
false
Work Material and Technique (display):
gunpowder on paper
Work Measurements (display):
230 cm (H) x 375 cm (W)
Image Rights (display):
© Chris Smith
Image Rights license agreement:
DAVIS ART IMAGES: This image is copyrighted by Davis or its sources and all interest in and to the Image and its copyrights throughout the World are retained by Davis or its sources. Your permission to use the Images is limited as provided below. You acknowledge and agree that your use of the Images, including all use by your faculty and students who are users, shall be strictly limited to educational purposes by means of display through classroom projection and closed network, for instruction and study solely by users who are staff, faculty and registered students of your educational institution at the locations specified below. This license includes permission to use the Images on a multi-user network at the defined locations, and to permit remote access to a computer/server located at your site. Simultaneous display in multiple locations at or connected to the defined locations also is permitted. For all of these uses, you willl use reasonable security measures designed to limit access accordingly (e.g. by requiring authenticated password entry or by using other reasonable security measures to limit access). Any open access use and any publication (including scholarly publication) of the Images for any purpose, is strictly prohibited. Any request for any such use, or any other use not expressly authorized in this Agreement, must be directed to Davis in writing. You shall inform all permitted users of the copyright status of the Images and the restrictions on their use set forth in this Agreement. Your specified locations of use are: 1. University of Colorado at Boulder; 2. University of Colorado at Denvcer and Health Sciences Center (inclusing the Metropolitan State College of Denver and the Community College of Denver which may have students on that downtown campus); 3. University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
Work Rights (display):
© Cai Guo-Qiang
Terms of Agreement and Conditions of Use:
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Holding Institution:
University of Colorado at Boulder
Collection:
Art and Art History Visual Resources Collection
Collection info and contact:
For information about this collection, see