Featured Exhibit:
Cai Guo-Qiang on the Roof: Transparent Monument

When:
April 24 - October 29, 2006

Where:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Each summer a special exhibition takes place on top of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This year the acclaimed Chinese contemporary artist, Cai Guo-Qiang, has been invited to exhibit several site-specific installations in The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden.

Cai was born in 1957 in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province. Although he was familiar with Western art, social changes in China prevented him from pursuing his interest in contemporary art. Instead, he studied stage design and also experimented with the spontaneous aspects of gunpowder.

Cai Guo-Qiang
Move Along, Nothing to See Here, 2006
Painted resin with sharp objects confiscated at airport security checkpoints
7'11"x 4'4" x 13'4" (241.3 x 132.1 x 406.4 cm) 7'6" x 3'10" x 14' (228.6 x 116.8 x 426.7 cm)
Courtesy of the artist

This year marks the fifth anniversary since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Cai's installations are an effective reminder of what it means to live in the post 9/11 world. The installation, Move Along, Nothing to See Here, consists of two life-sized replicas of crocodiles that are pierced with thousands of sharp objects that have been confiscated from airport security checkpoints.

Cai Guo-Qiang
Clear Sky Black Cloud, 2006
Black smoke shells Tuesday through Sunday, weekly, at noon, weather permitting, visible overhead
Courtesy of the artist

Cai's interest in the transitory nature of life can be seen in Clear Sky Black Cloud. Each Tuesday through Sunday at noon, an actual black cloud will appear above the Roof Garden. This installation incorporates his experience with gunpowder to create a sort of transient clock. It is also especially poignant when considered within the context of the immediate aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. On that day, and for days later, the Manhattan skyline was filled with dark smoke. This single black cloud evokes that event in a dramatic yet subtle manner.

According to Gary Tinterow, the Engekhard Curator of the Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and, Contemporary Art: "Cai is without doubt, one of the most inventive artists working today in New York and internationally…this will be the first solo exhibition by a contemporary Chinese artist to be held at the Metropolitan."

For more information about Cai Guo-Qiang on the Roof: Transparent Monument visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art web site.

To learn more about the art of Cai Guo-Qiang, visit the following web sites:
Cai Guo-Qiang web site
Art:21 Art in the Twenty-First Century

Visit Amazon to purchase Cai Guo-Qiang by Dana Hansen