Contemporary Art Seminar: Cai Guo-Qiang

Cai Guo-Qiang is an artist currently emerging with astounding art at large-scale shows at such places as the Guggenheim Museum, and the Venice Biennale (winner of the 48^th). Being an artist from communist China, his work is often charged often politically charged with ideals from ancient Chinese culture and modern day Chinese culture.

Probably his more known pieces are his gunpowder drawings. Explosions as a form of historic reprise, have been the context of these subtly beautiful drawings. The use of fire, and bombs, and destruction has been a common aspect of Chinese life, from repressive communist governments to the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He explores these aspects of daily life by literally using the explosion as his medium. "In the mid 1980s ... repression was strong in China. Explosions were an outlet for me, something that could free me from the social pressure." (from the artist)