Cai Guo-Qiang is a talented Chinese artist who currently resides in New York City. His artworks includes fengshui, Chinese medicine, shanshui paintings, science, flora and fauna, portraiture, and fireworks. Most of his work draws on Maoist/Socialist concepts for content, particularly his gunpowder drawings.
His recent installation titled Murmuration (Landscape) features a flock of 10,000 porcelain birds, assembled and smudged with black gunpowder. The massive quantity of birds filled the entire gallery and are suspended to produce a 3D-like calligraphic drawing of Mount Li, where ancient Chinese tales cites as the place from where goddess Lishan Laomu and creator Nüwa repaired the wall of heaven.
Guo-Qiang’s installation was part of the multi-part winter exhibition at Australia’s National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, which also include a display of selected China’s famed ancient terracotta warriors. The large-scale exhibit is open to the public until October 13, 2019.
