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Lot Essay
Cai Guo-Qiang has been working with gunpowder for most of his career, producing agunpowder drawing to accompany most of his major installation projects. This drawing is from Cai's 2001 project, Fireworks from Heaven, an installation produced for MEGA WAVE - Towards a New Synthesis, the 2001 Yokohama International Triennial of Contemporary Art. While the 'drawing' exists on its own as a work of art, it also serves as a record for the explosion in which it was created and the installation which it inspired. In this way, Cai's gunpowder works like this one can be thought of as charts of time and transformation.
Drawing for Fireworks from Heaven (Lot 515), the delicate modulation of the gunpowder markings and asymmetric composition recalls traditional Chinese ink painting. Though gunpowder has obvious roots in ancient Chinese culture, when appropriated as a medium by which to create art, it is significant in the way in which it lies outside of both Eastern and Western conventional art forms.
In this work the explosion of gunpowder and pigment roar across the composition like a meteorite hitting the earth, culminating in an expansive spray-the result is both violent and sublime. A duality also exists in process by which the work is created; there is a careful calculation in the way gunpowder fuses, loose explosive powders, and cardboard stencils are arranged on the paper prior to the explosion. The result however is always highly unpredictable. In destruction there is also creation, and within these dualities Cai offers us something mesmerizing and beautiful.
Drawing for Fireworks from Heaven (Lot 515), the delicate modulation of the gunpowder markings and asymmetric composition recalls traditional Chinese ink painting. Though gunpowder has obvious roots in ancient Chinese culture, when appropriated as a medium by which to create art, it is significant in the way in which it lies outside of both Eastern and Western conventional art forms.
In this work the explosion of gunpowder and pigment roar across the composition like a meteorite hitting the earth, culminating in an expansive spray-the result is both violent and sublime. A duality also exists in process by which the work is created; there is a careful calculation in the way gunpowder fuses, loose explosive powders, and cardboard stencils are arranged on the paper prior to the explosion. The result however is always highly unpredictable. In destruction there is also creation, and within these dualities Cai offers us something mesmerizing and beautiful.