I volunteered to assist with Cai's Sky Ladder piece at MOCA .... and that's my exacto work in the image below - the stencil of the flying dragon and the little passenger people - which will be used on Friday's piece.
That work consisted of a number of stencil images placed on a very long roll of paper covered with gunpowder
and exploded to create a new work by Cai Guo-Qiang at MOCA Geffen.
The 3 works created at MOCA along with another piece about crop circles were displayed to the public from April 8 thru July 30, 2012. The gunpowder was provided by and overseen by Pyro Spectaculars by Souza of LA.
Cai’s Desire for Zero Gravity
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 That work consisted of a number of stencil images placed on a very long roll of paper covered with gunpowder
and exploded to create a new work by Cai Guo-Qiang at MOCA Geffen.
The 3 works created at MOCA along with another piece about crop circles were displayed to the public from April 8 thru July 30, 2012. The gunpowder was provided by and overseen by Pyro Spectaculars by Souza of LA.
Last night, the work of dozens of volunteers culminated in an exciting finale. Cai lit the fuse of his first gunpowder drawing for MOCA, Chaos in Nature, filling the museum with a blast of eruptions followed by huge clouds of smoke.
When the air cleared and the protective layers were lifted from the canvas, an immense drawing depicting trees, lightning, volcanoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes in earthy shades of brown and yellow, was revealed.
Today, volunteers began work on Desire for Zero Gravity, Cai’s second gunpowder drawing. We cut stencils based on images of humans attempting flight and diagrams of flying machines and feng shui that Cai has collected over the years. Check out these source images which demonstrate Cai’s fascination with the universal human desire to fly and the stories of so many failed attempts.
Cai with the Russian Rocketeer I worked on.
Day 3, we worked on small stencils that related to Cai's life, from his first childhood drawing of a Dragon ships that headed into outer space to cave men to the unique design of the human ear; all personal icons to him. They were lit on a very long sheet of paper and then hung on the gallery walls at CAM Geffen.
The work took over the entire length of the South wall.
It was interesting to see how he worked, how he "wore" the role of the artist, and how he rallied volunteers to help him make his work.
MOCA was going broke, so it did not purchase the entire piece, but I understand it ended up purchasing some of the work when a benefector was eventually located. China Airlines had a private night during one of the explosions, so they may have been the patron.
When the air cleared and the protective layers were lifted from the canvas, an immense drawing depicting trees, lightning, volcanoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes in earthy shades of brown and yellow, was revealed.
Day 3, we worked on small stencils that related to Cai's life, from his first childhood drawing of a Dragon ships that headed into outer space to cave men to the unique design of the human ear; all personal icons to him. They were lit on a very long sheet of paper and then hung on the gallery walls at CAM Geffen.
The work took over the entire length of the South wall.
It was interesting to see how he worked, how he "wore" the role of the artist, and how he rallied volunteers to help him make his work.
MOCA was going broke, so it did not purchase the entire piece, but I understand it ended up purchasing some of the work when a benefector was eventually located. China Airlines had a private night during one of the explosions, so they may have been the patron.
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