Cai Guo Qiang the art of explosions and more...

I initially came across Cai Guo Qiang's work earlier in the year in ARTiT, a Japanese / English magazine covering contemporary art hailing from Asia. Flipping through the pages of the magazine I was immediately drawn to his gunpowder pieces. I'm not usually drawn to abstract work, but in this case there's readable structure beneath the chaos caused by the controlled explosions. The well schooled Cai is also very prolific when it comes to his installation and performance pieces and though we won't get to see any of his gunpowder pieces at the MET (he had a solo exhibition in 2003 at the Asia Society and Museum) there will be plenty of other great pieces on view. The exhibition will be on display until October 29, 2006 and try being there at noon when the Clear Sky Black Cloud piece will be on view.

But back to the gunpowder, Art:21 has a video of him in the middle of producing one of his gunpowder pieces. Politically charged, he had this to say about his usage of gunpowder, "there are countries where you have trouble finding oil paint, but I have always been able to find gunpowder wherever I went."