Cai Guo-Qiang, the Chinese artist for whom the sky is the actual limit, gets grounded for a new exhibit in Tokyo.
¡°Ramble in the Cosmos ¡ªFrom ¡®Primeval Fireball¡¯ Onward¡± at the National Art Center, Tokyo (NACT) features formative projects in Cai¡¯s career trajectory. Curator Eriko Osaka built the show around a 1991 exhibit Cai showed in Japan during the nearly nine years he lived in the country before he relocated to New York. At ¡°Primeval Fireball,¡± seven folding screen panels showed yet-to-be-realized projects, which fanned out as if from a central Big Bang. Some of the panels are gathered again here, along with new colored gunpowder pieces, in the same formation.
Though the panels are the thematic centerpiece, it¡¯s the large LED light installation based on Cai¡¯s 2019 work ¡°Encounter with the Unknown¡± that¡¯s the most eye-catching. The objects ¡ª UFOs, Einstein¡¯s face, rockets and alien figures ¡ª oscillate and light up on a timed sequence, shimmering and turning red, mimicking the sensation of a fireworks show.
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