Cai Guo-Qiang’s Explosive New Retrospective Traces the Artist’s Journey Home
Exhibiting artworks created during Cai’s travels through Europe and the United States, the retrospective hones in on Western art’s influence on Cai’s practice.
Cai Guo-Qiang P 12, while living in Japan from 1986 to 1995, began exploring the properties of gunpowder in his drawings. Cai’s use of gunpowder has become central to his practice, leading to his experimentation with explosives and the development of his signature ignition events.
Today, ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics, in which Cai is involved (though he can’t yet reveal his exact role), the artist returns to Beijing with a major retrospective at the Forbidden City’s Palace Museum. On view from December 15, 2020, to February 28, 2021, “Odyssey and Homecoming” coincides with the 600th anniversary of the former imperial palace and marks the museum’s first solo exhibition of contemporary art.
While Cai’s pyrotechnics helped shape the world’s perceptions of China when the country was emerging as a major global power in 2008, “Odyssey and Homecoming” does almost the opposite, presenting the West to China. Exhibiting artworks created during Cai’s travels through Europe and the United States, the retrospective hones in on Western art’s influence on Cai’s practice.
