Cai Guo-Qiang’s works, whether, as in the present drawing, gunpowder on paper, installations, or firework events, show an extraordinary complexity of traditional Chinese thought, themes, beliefs and motifs, which hold a universal and very human appeal, allowing his ideas to have an immediate and strong impact for a worldwide audience which has embraced him as one of the leading Chinese contemporary artists.

Cai’s early gunpowder works often depict motifs from the traditional Taoist beliefs of his grandmother who raised him as a child. Tigers, wolves, and mythical beasts occur frequently in his works representing the duality of nature, being both powerful and sublime while at the same time being destructive and frightening. In later works such as the present “Dragon Cypress” from 2009, Cai often depicts motifs such as acclaimed trees, flowers and birds from the traditional Confucius beliefs of his father, an accomplished ink and brush painter, which are imbued with serenity, calmness, tranquility and thousands of years of Chinese thought.

In “Dragon Cypress” Cai depicts a Dragon Cypress, which embodies the emotions, energies and life forces of his two belief systems. The Cypress is a symbol of longevity and abundance, its Chinese pronunciation ‘bai’ being a homonym for the word “one hundred”. A constant recurring motif in Chinese paintings, poetry and literature, the evergreen qualities of the Cypress came to represent long-life and endurance, even in the depths of winter’s hardships, the cypress stands tall and proud and full of life. Because of this it is perhaps the most revered of all Chinese plants and has a special place in Chinese philosophical thinking. A Dragon Cypress is so called because its trunk resembles the body of a dragon, and its leaves, the scales. Symbolizing power, strength, good fortune and benevolence, the dragon, emblem of the Chinese Emperor, stands for everything good in life and human nature.

In “Dragon Cypress” Cai has captured the full majestic power and meaning of this venerated tree. He has masterfully captured its strength, endurance, fortitude and vigor in the face of all adversity. Using gunpowder as his medium, the Cypress radiates positive and joyful energy imbued with a calmness and tranquility so much admired in traditional Chinese Confucian thought. This quiet calmness belies the powerful and destructive medium used to create it, gunpowder.

Cai was born in Quanzhou, Fujian Province in China in 1958. Quanzhou is the center of fireworks production in China and Cai grew up surrounded by factories from which the smell of gunpowder constantly permeated. Also, at this time Kinmen Island of Taiwan was under relentless bombardment by Mainland Chinese forces so the air was filled with gunpowder smoke. So, Cai was fascinated with gunpowder from a very early age. As an emotional, creative and sensitive youngster he was drawn to both the destructive and constructive power of gunpowder. It can destroy buildings and lives, but it can also produce wonderful firework experiences.

Searching for a medium that could release him and allow him to express himself freely, Cai began to incorporate different materials in his art. Porcelain, Chinese herbal medicine, kites, bamboo rafts, fengshui and, of course, gunpowder. He also tried different methods to find creativity with traditional ink and oil painting. Obsessed with natural forces and their ability to profoundly effect their environment, he tried to harness some of them to create his art. He used a fan on wet paint to create typhoon effects, fire to blister it, and a dove to walk across his canvas. However, it was gunpowder that finally set him free. He was drawn to its spontaneity, the powerful release of energy, the unknown and unpredictable result of using it. Over many years he has perfected his techniques for using this destructive material to produce both stunning explosion events and gunpowder drawings of which “Dragon Cypress” is one.

Cai’s medium and method is but one aspect of his art. His art is complex and unique, flowing from a very expressive, energetic and creative mind, which is a product of his origins, his experiences, his beliefs and his sensitivities. At a very early age Cai experienced the duality present in life. The concept of duality is central to the Chinese life-experience, the ying and the yang being the most widely known expressions of this. Life is complex, and we constantly have different forces pulling and tugging us in different directions.

Cai Guo-Qiang is perhaps the most internationalized of contemporary Chinese artists and he is regularly hailed in the international press as a global artist. He was the first Chinese artist to hold a solo exhibition at the prestigious Guggenheim Museum in New York. The groundbreaking exhibition “I want to Believe” also travelled to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics and then to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain in 2009. Running for a total of 2 years from 2008 to 2009, it attracted the most visitors ever for a Guggenheim exhibition, and placed Cai firmly in the ranks of the foremost contemporary artists. He also created the acclaimed fireworks display for the opening of the Beijing Olympics, which made him a household name worldwide.

Created in 2009, “Dragon Cypress” embodies the maturing qualities of calmness and tranquility that Cai seems to have experienced after his recent great successes. A profound and majestic work incorporating the great dualities, which he has become renowned for expressing, it is a superb representative work of this great artist. (Text by David Kearney)