Detail View: Visual Resources Teaching Collection: Waiting Wall: From the Engines of 400 Cars

aahi0008884

Waiting Wall: From the Engines of 400 Cars

installation view

1992

creation

2011-10-27

Cai Guo-Qiang (Chinese, born 1957)

male

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 gunpowder—a 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)

Contemporary

20th century

contemplation

economics

metals

recycled products

manufacturing

pillows

vehicles (transportation)

engines

religion (discipline)

creation

installations (visual works)

aluminum, cement, hay, diaper

wall: 250 cm (H) x 790 cm (W)

IBM Kawasaki City Gallery

repository

Kanagawa, Japan

Friis-Hansen, Dana, Octavio Zaya, and Serizawa Takash. Cai Guo-Qiang. New York: Phaidon Press Limited, 2002.

0-7148-4075-0

125

ISBN

unknown

1) use of this image is for education and educational research; 2) access is restricted to University of Colorado and Auraria Higher Education Center communities; 3) the original photographer is credited if known; 4) the image is published; 5) the amount of the work in relation to the whole is needed for education or educational research; 6) the number of derivatives is the minimum required for education or educational research; 7) the image has not been found to be reasonably available for sale; 8) duplication of the image does not violate preexisting contracts.

© Cai Guo-Qiang

YOU AGREE: Luna Imaging's Insight Software and the digital image collection associated with it (the Software) are being provided by the University of Colorado under the following license. By obtaining, using, and/or copying this work, you (the Licensee) agree that you have read, understood, and will comply with the following terms and conditions. 1. The Software contains the University of Colorado's Department of Art and Art History's implementation of a digital image collection; 2. Any images obtained through use of the Software will be used only for non-profit, educational purposes; 3. The use of images obtained through the software will only be used while the Licensee is either: a) an employee of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver, or the Community College of Denver, or b) an enrolled student at the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver, or the Community College of Denver; 4. When the Licensee is no longer an employee or student of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver or Community College of Denver, either by an action of the University of Colorado, Metropolitan State College of Denver or the Community College of Denver or due to actions of the Licensee, the licensee will cease to use any images exported from the Department of Art and Art History's digital image collection; 5. The Licensee agrees to indemnify the University for claims and liability arising out of the use of the Software or for any violations of this license; 6. THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SUPPLIES THE SOFTWARE WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

The contents of the University of Colorado Digital Library are available for your use in research, teaching, and private study. Some of these items are protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) and some items may have additional restrictions. If you use the items in this collection, make sure you abide by any restrictions stated in the descriptive data window. The nature of these collections often makes it difficult to determine the copyright status of an item. We have made every effort to provide information about copyright owners and other restrictions in the descriptive data window. Ultimately, however, it is your responsibility to use the item according to the terms governing its use. If you are a copyright holder and the information is either not listed or listed incorrectly, please let us know so that we can update the information on our site.

University of Colorado at Boulder

Art and Art History Visual Resources Collection

For information about this collection, see . For specific questions, suggestions, or corrections about the descriptive data for images, contact aahvrc@colorado.edu. Please include the Image Record ID ('aahi' followed by a 7-digit number) for each image in question.