CAI GUA-QIANG posted by J

I wish i wasn't so broke right now otherwise i would be heading to the big apple to take a gander at Cai Gua-Qiang's huge exhibit at the Guggenheim. The scale of this exhibit blows my mind. Hopefully I'll come across some dough and take the adventure.

I first came across Gua-Qiang in the book, Vitamin D: New Perspectives in Drawings. It's one of the most looked through art books I've ever owned. He does these really interesting illustrations with gunpowder, which he then lights, burning the paper or canvas, etc. The end product being a unique a"perspective" on the illustration.

Back to the Guggenheim exhibit, there are two installations that i find to be beautiful and grand. I have only seen pictures and they amaze me so I hope I will be able to see them in person. The first is "Inopportune: Stage One", a huge piece consisting of 9 cars with sequenced multichannel light tubes. You can see a video on the Guggenheim website. It has some political meaning to it but as you come to know me I'm pretty much a visual kind of guy. The second is "Head On", which is 99 life-sized wolf replicas that start placed on the ground and then the path takes flight till they meet "head on" with a glass wall. I've never seen anything like. I'm so jealous of artists that get the opportunities to work with such scale and cost. I know i should be, but you get it.