Interview with CAI-GUO QUANG by VICE

By Kaleem Aftab

Photo courtesy of Cai Guo-Qiang's studio

Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang makes ebullient art, awesome in the traditional meaning of the word. In the past, he's "extended" the Great Wall of China to the Gobi desert with a six-mile-long gunpowder fuse he ignited, created paintings through explosions, and orchestrated the spectacular fireworks display during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He also won the Golden Lion Prize at the 48th Venice Biennale, arguably the top honor in the art world. In a new documentary, out now on Netflix, viewers are offered vantage into the life of the man behind the match.

Director Kevin Macdonald's Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang takes an engrossing and informative look at the work of Guo-Qiang over the last few years. The film starts with the display the artist conducted at the economic conference APEC China in 2014, before following him as he attempts to complete Sky Ladder, a site-specific project he'd failed to realize three times in the past, which involves the construction of a 1,650-foot ladder that reaches into the sky before it's ignited, leaving a glowing image of a path to the heavens.

Macdonald puts the artist's work in context, making the argument that his practice with gunpowder is analogous to cultural revolution because his art is born from an explosion that destroys what has come before. He also hints at the battle between the funding of Guo-Qiang's work and maintaining artistic integrity, but ultimately his film is a touching and affectionate portrait of one of the world's great pyrotechnics. VICE met with Guo-Qiang just before he gave a talk at London's Frieze Art Fair to discuss his life, work, and the movie about it all.

VICE: Why did you agree to do this documentary?

Cai Guo-Qiang:  Many people are interested in my exhibitions at museums, or the explosion events, but they are also equally curious about how I create these works. The documentary film manages to do something that cannot be done by an exhibition, which is that you get to see my complicated feelings for my hometown, my family, and my country. I hope that you see the real me, because oftentimes when people talk about me and what they say about me, I don't think it's the real me. I feel that the film manages to capture the real vulnerability that I feel. The difficulty and vulnerability on the screen is very real. Everyone has their moments of solitude, difficulties, and vulnerability. Film can make not just the work accessible to people, but also the artists.

FIND THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW HERE