Has this really been a most unfortunate year for Cai Guo-Qiang? His careful plans, papering the walls of some Hirshhorn gallery space are after all, unrealized. When first entering “Unlucky Year: Unrealized Projects from 2003-2004,” the Hirshhorn’s exhibit of nine of Guo-Qiang’s preliminary drawings, viewers are hit with the strong scent of gun smoke. Of course, this is no surprise, considering that each of these drawings is the result of several small explosions. Combustion allows gunpowder to find its own borders on the paper, forming very naturalistic shapes.
However, the drawings do not stand alone. They are each a plan for one real life, large-scale explosion that for one of several reasons was never pulled off. With his monumental use of gunpowder, Guo-Qiang thinks bigger than many of his predecessors dared. Although Guo-Qiang admittedly gets his ‘bigger is better’ inspiration from his upbringing in China, his works share a fundamental spirit with modern American earthworks art, where the boundaries of traditional sculpture are turned completely sideways, as well as with the practice of concept or performance art, where art and idea become separated. His meticulous plans are also inextricably tied to principles of mathematics and physics.
Guo-Qiang’s most devout wish for his exhibition is that they will, in every viewer’s mind, “allow time and space for imagination, creativity and thought.” Even if you see his ambitions as akin to the cheap and sensationalistic Las Vegas tradition of razing old buildings with real explosives for all to see, it is hard to denounce Guo-Qiang’s ideas as unimportant. What he does – interesting and aesthetically pleasing explosions in the sky – he does with keen intelligence and skill. Artists throughout modern history have been seriously questioning what it is that constitutes real, true art, and Guo-Qiang is no exception. Can art be one big idea-filled action, happening in actual space with real-life consequences? Guo-Qiang brings his art into the realm of life, and in the process asks serious questions about the scale of artistic thought.
Guo-Qiang’s exhibit in its entirety is entitled “Traveler” and includes not only the Hirshhorn drawings but also a large installation in the Sackler. This work, entitled “Reflection” is a cosmopolitan collection of porcelain fragments on which floats the remains of a real excavated fishing boat. This Japanese boat and the Chinese porcelain fragments allude to the connection of Asian cultures as well as ancient silk routes that would serve as the gateway between China and western cultures.
“Traveler” is an exhibit of big ideas and serious artistic statements. It will remain at the Smithsonian’s Sackler and Hirshhorn museums until April 24.
The Sackler Gallery is at 1050 Independence Ave. S.W., and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is at Independence Avenue and Seventh Street S.W.
