Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling back to earth

72 73 Unmanned Nature: Project for the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art 2008 Installation view, ‘The 7th Hiroshima Art Prize’, 2008 Gunpowder on paper and water pond Collection: The artist Photograph: Seiji Toyonaga. Courtesy: Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art/Cai Studio Sunshine and Solitude 2010 Installation view, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City, 2010 Gunpowder on paper, volcanic rocks, 9000 litres of Mezcal Photograph: Diego Berruecos Courtesy: MUAC/Cai Studio The first of these works comprised a 45-metre drawing, executed in gunpowder on paper and depicting a Chinese mountain range with a huge sun hanging above it. The scorches, burn marks and gunpowder residue in the image uncannily mimic the ethereal effects conjured with ink and brush by Chinese literati painters. Displayed on a curving wall, the panoramic landscape is reflected in the large semi-circular pool of water in front of it and creates an immersive and sublime environment. Travels in the Mediterranean also included a large-scale gunpowder drawing and reflecting pool, but in this case the liquid was olive oil, a substance intimately associated with the landscape the work depicted. Sunshine and Solitude extended this putative series of works, and also used evocative local materials to enrich the specificity of the work. It featured a landscape of black lava stones with a ‘lake’ of tequila at its centre. Around the space were large gunpowder drawings of Mexican motifs, landscapes, flora and fauna. Heritage seems to synthesise these two modes in order to suggest something new. The previous works were about specific places and engaged with specific histories and cultures. Heritage presents a universal myth. It is non-specific, even as Cai stresses that inspiration for the piece came from his immersion in the Australian landscape: ‘The work developed from my extensive visit to Queensland in 2011, and the general notion of Australia as the last paradise on earth’. As with previous projects, Cai conducted extensive research before forming a concept for the new work: Australia is mankind’s inherited paradise, very far away, very surreal. Heritage reflects on my experience [there]. I spent time visiting different parts of Queensland, which resulted in the visual presentation of the work. Walking in the mountains at night to observe nocturnal creatures, wading in the clear water on the sand island, and snorkelling to see the tropical marine life all inspired me. 4 Despite the specifics of its inspiration, the work does not directly reflect any of these experiences — it instead addresses a mythic reality. The sense of harmony that pervades the installation might just be a premonition, a vision of what lies ahead. On the other hand, we note that people are absent. So perhaps we are witnessing a scene from long ago, a sort of prelapsarian Arcadia? In this second reading, the work expresses a kind of mourning for what has been lost, and becomes, as Cai has suggested, a ‘manifestation of eternal sorrow and tragedy’. In this respect the exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art also suggests a shift in focus for the artist — the ‘falling back to earth’ of the title. His gaze has shifted from the heavens to the problems of the planet and the creatures that inhabit it. North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, photographed during the artist’s site visit, July 2011 Photograph: Don Heron Courtesy: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Research Library