cai guo-qiang

this was amazing. my friend chris sullivan and i went to the gugg show and not only did i want to start to blow shit up after, but i began to see the visual arts in a different way. i think i've written earlier in this blog about my lack of interest in anything other than photography, but this lifted my head to a new level. i will say that we both opted for the (free) audio sets which really enlightened me to the "pieces" (i hate that word, almost as much as "the space", but not sure what else to call them). and although i provided that link to "head-on" in the berlin show, it was nothing like walking up to it and watching it wind around you and to see the ultimate end, a half circle ahead. you saw it ahead of you, but then you walked under these "wolves" and their faces, and as you got closer, the energy to these sculptures became sooo intense. so, in this instance, "the space" TOTALLY worked...as the gugg usually does. mr. guo-giang's work was presented in a most exceptional way.
yes, there were political overtones, cultural overtones, socio-political, socio-aesthetic-eastern-western-divide overtones. but it was so visceral, and this was exceptional. i don't have the art history skills to explain why a certain work works for me, but this did. it was just a decayed, hollowed out boat, surrounded with broken white plates and broken ceramic idols. he found this wreckage in japan, washed up on the shore at low tide, and the community there helped him make this art piece. and this was a chinese, expatriate in japan. and don't the chinese and the japs not get along? (aka. nanking). cultural divides came together to make this happen. a ray of hope.
i was worried, meeting chris, cause i get a little cynical when i'm faced with ART. and i have not hung out with chris in a long time so i was afraid that i might come across as the art meanie...but it was nice not to have to walk around and talk to someone. we did our own thing and talked afterwards and it was wonderful to find out that we were both on the same page. even if we felt differently, we could talk about it...on our way to Payard.
don't judge me.