Flirting with fireworks

By Bruno

cai
Go over to VBS today to see the new film about Cai Guo-Qiang, the Chinese-born contemporary artist obsessed with gunpowder. You may know Mr. Guo-Qiang as the dude behind that “Footprints of History” fireworks display during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summer Olympics. He’s also widely known for his mid-career retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in 2008. The work featured in this piece, “Tree with Yellow Blossoms”, which is a singed tree fashioned out of gunpowder and paper, was created as part of the Livestrong Stages Global Art Exhibition, an effort to raise funds and awareness for cancer research.“It’s a dialogue with the gunpowder and the sheet of paper. It is like flirting,” says Cai. Go here to check out Cai Quo-Qiang, some gunpowder and some paper getting it on.