Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling back to earth

176 177 2000 For the 2000 Sydney Biennale, Cai invites local artists to paint a live model on horseback among the classical paintings at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. 2001 As artistic director of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Cityscape Fireworks in Shanghai, Cai orchestrates one of the largest explosion events of his career, a 20-minute fireworks extravaganza along the Huangpu River. 2002 Shanghai Art Museum presents Cai’s first solo exhibition in China. It presents a show within a show that features Cai’s collection of works by Konstantin Maksimov, the Russian socialist realist painter who established the dominant academic style in Chinese painting. Cai’s own painting teachers were also influenced by Maksimov’s style. 1999 Cai’s reworking of the classic Cultural Revolution sculptural tableau, Venice’s Rent Collection Courtyard , wins the Golden Lion at the 48th Venice Biennale, but attracts a copyright claim from the original creators. The case is dismissed owing to the sensitive political questions involved. At Ghent’s S.M.A.K (Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst) Cai makes firecrackers from casino vouchers as part of a long-running collaboration with curator Jan Hoet. While in Bahia, Brazil, he works with at-risk children on a cannon-making project. Cai returns to Brisbane to create Bridge Crossing — a bamboo bridge traversing the Queensland Art Gallery’s Watermall. He also devises one of the first Kids’ APT projects, a bridge-building activity. A performance planned for 9pm on 9 September (9/9/99) is abandoned when unpredictability strikes again and a set of 99 small boats sinks in the Brisbane River. Testing aluminium boats in preparation for the performance event Blue Dragon on the Brisbane River ‘The Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 1999 Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Research Library Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Cityscape Fireworks realised at The Bund, Huangpu River and Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Shanghai, 20 October 2001 / Comissioned by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum / Courtesy: Cai Studio 2003 Commissioned by organisers of the Siwa Art Project in Egypt, Cai works with children and families in the Sahara to produce Man, Eagle and Eye in the Sky , in which 300 Chinese kites are painted for launching into the Siwa sky. Cai relocates his studio to Manhattan’s East Village and his second daughter, Wenhao, is born in September. 2004 Cai uses six fighter jets to realise the aerial work Painting Chinese Landscape Painting at the Miramar Air Show in San Diego. Inopportune: Stage One 2004 / Exhibition copy installed at the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2008 / Nine cars and sequenced multi-channel light tubes / Dimensions variable / Collection: Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Robert A Arnold, in honour of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum, 2006 / Photograph: David Heald ©SRGF, NY / Courtesy: Cai Studio Move Along, Nothing to See Here 2006 / Installation view, ‘Cai Guo-Qiang on the Roof’, Iris and B Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2006 / Painted resin with sharp objects confiscated at airport security checkpoints / Collection: The artist / Photograph: Teresa Christiansen. Courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Cai Studio Venice’s Rent Collection Courtyard 1999 / Installation view, Venice, Italy, 1999 / 108 life-sized sculptures created on site by Long Xu Li and nine guest artisan sculptors / Commissioned by the 48th Venice Biennale Artwork not extant / Photograph: Elio Montanari / Courtesy: Cai Studio 2005 Cai curates the exhibition ‘Virgin Garden: Emersion’ for China’s first official pavilion at the Venice Biennale. 2006 The exhibition ‘Cai Guo-Qiang on the Roof: Transparent Monument’ runs for six months at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, with daily explosions at noon above the museum. Cai relocates to Beijing to serve as Director of Visual and Special Effects for the forthcoming Olympic Games. 2008 ‘Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe’ breaks the attendance record for visual art exhibitions at New York’s Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, in which his major installation Head On 2006 is a highlight. Cai’s Footprints of History and other fireworks mark the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. The artist is awarded the Hiroshima Art Prize by the Hiroshima municipal government. He also begins a series of participatory gunpowder drawings created with the assistance of local communities, the processes of which are open for public viewing. Man, Eagle and Eye in the Sky , realised in collaboration with over 600 schoolchildren from 40 schools throughout the Governorate of Marsa Matruh at Siwa Oasis, Sahara Desert, Egypt, 11–14 November 2003 Silk and bamboo handmade kites, paint / Commissioned by Siwa Art Project, Egypt / Photograph: Hiro Ihara / Courtesy: Cai Studio