Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling back to earth

45 44 A tree lies in the atrium of the Gallery of Modern Art. Displaced from its original location on the outskirts of Brisbane, a site earmarked for urban development, it is now a singular object, an artwork by Cai Guo-Qiang. Titled Eucalyptus , it is displayed in the gallery space for contemplation, to be studied for its form, its beauty, its size. It is overwhelmingly present, deeply familiar, and named for what it is; yet, it is also allegorical, a metonym of the Australian landscape. There are over 700 species of eucalypts across the continent, evolving over thousands of years in synergy with the varying rhythms of drought and fire, heat and cold, and flourishing despite low rainfall and poor soils. They signify the unique conditions of Australia’s environment, and their gnarled shapes and subtle colours have enabled its artists — be they Albert Namatjira, Harold Cazneaux, Hans Heysen or Howard Taylor — to represent landscapes that are instantly recognisable and distinct from all others. Eucalyptus 2013 is a singular tree and, like Murray Bail’s egotistical gum, it absorbs all around it, including us. It focuses our attention. The way we look at things in museums makes us think about aspects of this tree that we would not consider when encountering other trees. Cai Guo-Qiang encourages visitors to sit and meditate on this tree, to ponder its future and to imagine its past. He was inspired to create Eucalyptus after trekking through Lamington National Park in south- east Queensland, with its soaring Antarctic beeches, remnants of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana. The sense of deep time radiating from these trees, linking them to a past when Australia was fused with South America, Africa, Antarctica, India — rather than its isolated island state today — made a great impact on the artist. It resonated with his abiding interest in astrophysics, and its parallels in Daoist cosmology. Cai has spoken of the influence on his work of the idea that we were all once unified at the moment of the Big Bang, that the ‘human spirit was born at the time of the creation of the universe, and actually contains vivid memories of the past’. 2 That we are each connected to all living things, plant and animal, at the most fundamental level, underpins Cai’s Eucalyptus at a moment when much of humanity’s relationship to nature is more distant than it has ever been. The gum tree has a pale ragged beauty. A single specimen can dominate an entire Australian hill. It’s an egotistical tree. Standing apart it draws attention to itself and soaks up moisture and all signs of life, such as harmless weeds and grass, for a radius beyond its roots, at the same time giving precious little in the way of shade. It is trees which compose a landscape. 1 Murray Bail Falling back to earth Russell Storer Antarctic beech tree, photographed during the artist’s site visit, Lamington National Park, south-east Queensland, July 2011 Photograph: Melissa Kemp Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Research Library