Art & Identity- Cai Guo-Qiang

ART & Identity- Cai Guo-Qaing

Research Summary
Benjamin McCready

Cai Guo-Qaing raises interesting ideas when in relation to the theme of Art & Identity. His work primarily draws inspiration from ancient Chinese decorative art and ink paintings, Chinese tradition, Feng Shui, Chinese medicines and remedies, and Chinese wildlife. Through Cai Guo-Qaings work you can easily see Chinese culture embedded into his work. Cai Guo-Qaing spent the first 29 years of his life in China, of which at the time was enduring political unrest. His work 'Venice's Rent Collection Courtyard' is a direct appropriation of a 1965 anonymous propagandistic work called Rent Collection Courtyard from the time of the Chinese Cultural Revolution which depicted the exploitation of feudalism and was meant to contrast with the benefits of life under Mao Zedong. The remaking of this iconic sculpture initiated an intense debate. Cai Guo-Qaing explains

“... the tragedy of time, of people, of artists who were once full of passion and conviction in their beliefs. Reflecting upon the artist's work in particular, we see the discrepancy between ideology and reality, the tragedy of it all.”

Rent Collection Courtyard, 1965

Anonymous

http://instructional1.calstatela.edu/bevans/Art101/Art101B-10-China/WebPage-Full.00079.html

(accessed 9th August 2010)

Venice's Rent Collection Courtyard

1999

Cai Guo-Qiang

http://www.caiguoqiang.com/imgs/imgs_project/1999_venice%20rent_01.jpg

(accessed 9th August 2010)

If you look closely Cia Guo-Quiang's replica you will find it is sculpted in a crude fashion which would not suit the purpose it once had.

Although this particular work won the Leone d'Oro award at the 48th Venice Biennale, He may be more well known for his work with explosions. His explorations with explosions are broad, varying from performance, painting, action sculpture, photography, to video. The main ingredient is gunpowder which is a chemical deeply seeded in ancient Chinese culture. The paintings also resemble Chinese and Japanese ink paintings from early Imperial China with similar colour and tone, subject matter, scale and ratio.

Luoshenfu by Gu Kaizhi (344-406 AD)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Luoshenfu_Gu_Kai_Zhi.jpg

(accessed 9th August 2010)

Fetus Movement II: Project Extraterrestrials No. 9 by Cai Guo-Qiang

1992

http://www.asiaartcenter.org/e_index.php?page=exhib&exhibno=56

(accessed 10th August 2010)

Another work that references Cai Guo-Qiang's identity is Head On which is 99 life sized replicas of wolves and a glass wall in which the wolves leap in an epic arch but colliding with the glass wall in a pile. 'This represents humans mindlessly following a collective ideology. Aesthetically this particular installation is harder to trace to traditional Chinese art, but is still a very direct comment on political China.

Head On by Cai Guo-Qiang

2006

http://teachartwiki.wikispaces.com/Head+On+--+Cai+Guoqiang

(accessed 9th August 2010)

Zaya, Octavio. "Interview" in Cia Guo-Qiang ed. Dana Friis-Hansen, Octavio Zaya and Serizawa Takeshi 8-35 (London: Phiadon Press 2002)

Krens, Munroe ed. Cia Guo-Qiang I Want To Believe (New York: Guggenheim Museum Publications 2008)

http://www.caiguoqiang.com/

(accessed 7th August 2010)

Heartley, Eleanor, Art and Today; Art and the Identity, (New York, Phaidon Press, 2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrTrKJQnwJs

(accessed 7th August 2010)