BOOK:Cai Guo-Qiang, Phaidon Publications

During the ‘90s Cai Guo-Qiang has made projects in all the inhabited continents of the world. Cai’s early works from the ‘80s took the form of oil paintings, but these gradually evolved as he became interested in harnessing the power of nature to develop his work in new and unusual ways. His early experiments included making rubbings from rocks and trees on the canvas before painting it, and using exploding gunpowder to mark and scorch the canvas. This interest in location is fundamental to the artist’s work, which frequently alters or develops as it is exhibited at new sites. In the Monograph of Cai Guo-Qiang by Phaidon Publications with 120 colour illustrations & 30 black and white illustrations, Dana Friis-Hansen traces the development of the artist’s work from the early oil paintings, produced while he was living in China, to the complex and ambitious projects he now conducts worldwide. Seriwaja Takashi analyses a single work from the artist’s Projects for Extraterrestrials series, “Project to Extend the Great Wall of China by 10,000 Meters” (1993). Cai Guo-Qiang’s writings range from project notes, which detail the methods and thinking behind his works, to a new text on his unrealized projects and the role of chance in the creative process.–Efi Michalarou