Cai Guo Qiang, one of China’s best-known artists, opened his blockbuster The Ninth Wave exhibition with a literal bang on August 8th as his signature multicolored ‘daytime fireworks’ exploded over the Huangpu River. Located at the Power Station of Art on the river bank, the impressive scale matches the huge exhibition spaces that this relatively new venue offers.
The highlight of the exhibit is the eponymous The Ninth Wave, an ark filled with stuffed animals, which brings to mind Noah’s Ark but was actually inspired by Russian painter Ivan Aivazovsky. Also featured is a literally groundbreaking exhibit entitled Silent Ink – a 2,960 square foot lake carved out of the museum floor and filled with calligraphy ink. In the style of a traditional Chinese ink paintings, various gunpowder paintings imagine a post-apocalyptic Shanghai, overtaken by nature and without human life. Using animal and plant motifs, Cai references traditional Chinese forms of artwork alluding to a time when people lived in harmony with nature. Hopefully, Cai’s ark of near dead animals along with his other environment-related works will continue to draw attention to one of China’s biggest priorities as he states, “their not being dead leaves possibilities and space for imagination.”
The exhibitions runs through October 26th and is a must for art lovers visiting Shanghai.
