In Cai Guoqiang's creation, gunpowder, a traditional folk art, shows a poetic aesthetic with a sense of violence. He used gunpowder to get rid of the shackles of the brush, and turned the expression of art into inspiration for life.
In the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the word Lichun vacated the bird's nest. In addition, the five rings, snowflakes, and welcoming pine all occupy the night of Beijing. This fireworks display, which is different from the 2008 Olympic Games, is less grand and heavy, and more light. The gesture made the world feel the tenderness and romance of the Chinese people. There is no great sense of performance, but it is enough to reach people's hearts. These all come from Cai Guoqiang, the chief visual art designer of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Cai Guoqiang, who was born in Quanzhou, Fujian, went through a period of tense relations between the mainland and Taiwan when he was a child. He was often bombarded with gunfire. Compared with artists in other regions, he had a more sensitive and profound sensitivity to gunpowder. In Quanzhou, people are in awe of the power of nature, and everyone believes in Feng Shui. Believing in Feng Shui means believing in a hidden world, believing in some invisible power. Gunpowder has also become the external sustenance of this invisible force, a time-space tunnel connecting the mysterious world and the universe. Cai Guoqiang's art is always looking for a relationship with invisible forces.
Cai Guoqiang's father was a calligrapher. We can still see some shadows of calligraphy in Cai Guoqiang's gunpowder paintings. His father, who worked in a bookstore, never took the money back home and used it all to buy books. During the Cultural Revolution, these books were all used. Forced to be burned by his father, these burned books will eventually become Cai Guoqiang's fireworks and rise into the sky.
The young Cai Guoqiang is energetic and deeply influenced by his father. His painting is conservative and traditional. He is eager to find a breakthrough. Cai Guoqiang found the ubiquitous fireworks and firecrackers in his hometown. , to be reborn in an almost destructive way, Cai Guoqiang uses this instant and momentary work to fight against the traditional and timeless art form.
But gunpowder is a highly dangerous substance. Grandma told Cai Guoqiang that gunpowder is fine, but if it can be ignited, it will extinguish. This philosophical sentence was engraved in Cai Guoqiang's heart.
Since then, Cai Guoqiang has begun his artistic exploration of gunpowder, becoming a teenager who blasts abstract paintings on canvas and sets off fireworks during the day. He and his art went into Japan and America, into the world and the universe. Cai Guoqiang took gunpowder as an artistic medium and linked himself with him, and he also became the real first person in the world of gunpowder art.
In 1993, Cai Guoqiang returned to China. He came to the end of the Jiayuguan Great Wall and wanted to extend the Great Wall by 10,000 miles. 600 kilograms of gunpowder continued to be arranged for 10,000 meters at the end of the Great Wall. After the gunpowder was ignited, it continued to blast for 15 minutes to "build" a 10,000-meter-long Great Wall of Fireworks. This is Cai Guoqiang's "Talking to Aliens" project. He keeps thinking about what aliens from the sky will think when they look at the borders of human beings, and what will their expression be like?
Cai Guoqiang, who went to the United States in 1995, created "A Century with Mushroom Clouds". He walked into the heavily guarded nuclear test base in Nevada, and lit firecrackers bought from Chinatown on the wasteland of nuclear bomb craters. The smoke rose and formed a small mushroom cloud. Mushroom cloud is an early warning of nuclear disaster and represents the progress of science and technology. Under the cover of mushroom cloud, the world has peace. We fear it, but we are even more afraid of losing it.
50 couples from all over the world who created "One Night Stand" in Paris in 2013, accompanied by the unprecedented gorgeous fireworks over Paris, spent the night on a cruise on the Seine River. Stockhausen's string quartet echoed in the air. Cai Guoqiang gave each couple a lantern, and the lantern was turned on and off by pressing a button, so the audience could see the situation in the tent.
In 2014, the Shanghai Contemporary Art Museum "Nine -level waves". This firework performance was like the first chaos, as the gods came, and the light and fire bloomed between the dark and the darkness, the cigarettes and color of the interweave, and Cai Guoqiang used a game.The fireworks show depicts the entire universe.
Cai Guoqiang and his team continued to improve the technology of fireworks. The launch and angle can be carefully programmed by the computer, and can be controlled by remote buttons. When the wind is strong, the discharge time can be adjusted. The effect is beautiful, poetic and romantic. Since then, with more and more successes on the artistic road, Cai Guoqiang has ignited the ancient beasts of Florence, Pompeii, and the night of the Beijing Winter Olympics, becoming a Chinese force that cannot be ignored in the world's contemporary art.
Will end in loneliness
Gunpowder undoubtedly played an extremely important role in Cai Guoqiang's artistic journey. It released enormous energy and burst into splendid fireworks, but these splendid and shocking arts seemed to conceal Cai Guoqiang's delicate emotions. The fireworks will always climb upwards, exuding the power of life, but they will slowly end like life. After the silence, the people who set off the fireworks will eventually return to loneliness. What Cai Guoqiang created is a kind of shocking. Art, but after the shock, everything will eventually return to silence. Shock is an impact on the senses, while silence point directly to the heart and face the heart.
When he was a child, Cai Guoqiang was addicted to "exploding paintings", and he locked himself in his room every day to create creations, while the neighbors around him thought that the engineering team was doing blasting. After a long time, the neighbors nearby came to complain, and the grandmother did not tell the grandson who was addicted to creation, but came to apologize to her family. Grandma used her actions to protect Cai Guoqiang's artistic dream.
Back to Quanzhou
He often said that his wife is the epitome of Quanzhou. No matter where he is, as long as his wife is by his side, he will never leave his hometown. Perhaps it was this attachment to his hometown and his relatives that made him still have an obsession in his heart.
He once promised his grandma that he would let her see his works with her own eyes. Cai Guoqiang went to the world with fireworks. So many of his splendid works were shown to people from all over the world.But to his regret, his grandmother never saw it with her own eyes.
And this time, he just wanted to dedicate the work to his grandma. This obsession is Cai Guoqiang's personal thing and his own art. Maybe he doesn't even think it's art, but this is what he wants to do. After three failures, whether it is fate or fate, the tortuous experience is destined to make Cai Guoqiang's dream come true in his hometown.
The best works are left to hometown and family
On June 15, 2015, Cai Guoqiang returned to the magical and destroyed fishing village. This repeatedly frustrated project was secretly made in his hometown. Only a few people witnessed this wonderful and fantastic One scene, from ignition to extinction, lasted about 150 seconds, but it took Cai Guoqiang 21 years to concoct this ladder that is "like a dream bubble, like dew and like electricity". He brought gunpowder into art and brought it to the world, but he left the best works to his hometown and his family.
This time, it took him 21 years to set off the most beautiful fireworks for his grandmother. Cai Guoqiang was like a child eager to receive awards in front of his grandmother, smiling from ear to ear: "Ma'am, your grandson is great."
A month later, grandma passed away forever. Cai Guoqiang used the ladder to light up grandma's way to heaven. The embers and smoke that remained in the sky were the back of grandma when she left, and the fireworks flowed along the ladder. Climb up slowly for missing, the end of the ladder is the person I want to see.
Article Source:来个设计
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