Cai Guo Qiang

When visiting the the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nice, France, I discovered the work of Cai Guo Qiang. He was born in 1957 in Quanzhou (a Fijian Provence in China, He emigrated to Japan for 10 years before eventually settling in New York.

Using gun-powder a lot in his work he has developed these beautiful elegant looking exhibits. Taken from something traditionally made to kill/ destroy, he creates beautiful lines and shapes.

(Unfortunately under glass) I was able to see a lot of his personal style and technique. Without focusing too much on the history behind his work and himself i want to show how his work inspires me as an art student. After seeing this exhibition personally and then doing a little research when i was home i can how really understand why he uses these unusual techniques.

*this videos were playing in the exhibition to explain the process behind the work*

This is like the work i saw in Nice, Explosions precisely used to create patterns and symbolic meaning. As the film says, "its the power from within, not what you see". He truly is an inspiration, not only in exhibition design but in his methods of taking something ugly and making it beautiful.

_________

He also has famous exhibitions in the Guggenheim Museum. Here is a short video explaining some of his work.

...

Holiday Inspiration.

The girls in spain wash their knickers in the rain and the boys in france do the hula hula dance!

Firstly i'd like to say... France rocks my socks.

Wont ramble on about how amazing my holiday/ trip was! I think a summery of pictures will illustrate my time in Nice, Monaco, Ville Franche, Antibes.

(These are my 'arty farty' pictures from looking at nature, culture, galleries & art)

(these pictures are just a very small selection... i spent most of my time looking into bushes & trees, trying to find lots of different abstract inspiration to help me in my 3rd year. I love the green palm leaves... for example, i can see something very sculptural and almost architectural in that. The next stage of my process is to make and design a sketchbook/ scrapbook. I want to have "designs on file", sketches and different bits and bobs ive collected and created. Please comment if you have any feedback for me!)