MIT Office of the Arts 
For Immediate Release: Mar. 31, 2003
Contact: Mary Haller, MIT Office of the Arts
(617) 253-4006, haller@media.mit.edu
Cambridge, MA.... Cai Guo-Qiang, 2003 Ida Ely Rubin Artist-in-Residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will present a public talk on “My Low Tech Art” on Monday, April 28 from 7-9pm, in Room 10-250 (enter 77 Massachusetts Ave). Cai’s talk will be in Chinese, translated to English by an interpreter.
One of the most internationally significant Chinese artists to emerge in the 1990s, Cai Guo-Qiang was born in Quanzhou, China in 1957. He left China in 1986 and lived in Tokyo from 1988-1995 before moving to New York City, where he is currently based.
Best known for his site-specific gunpowder events, Cai also incorporates Chinese history and ritual in his installation works, using elements as diverse as feng shui, herbal medicine, Socialist Realism, Chinese funerary customs, kites and jacuzzis, always investigating humanity’s place within the universe.
His gunpowder works began in the mid-1980s, when Cai created a series of paintings by burning gunpowder on the surface of painted canvas. His pyrotechnic projects range in scope from the grand-scale "Project for Extraterrestrials No. 10: Project to Extend the Great Wall of China by10,000 Meters" (1993), an extension of the Great Wall of China designed to be seen from outer space by extraterrestrial beings to the modest "Nevada," from "The Century with Mushroom Clouds: Projects for the 20th Century" (1996), in which Cai burned a pinch of gunpowder to form a tiny mushroom cloud in various locales.
Cai was shortlisted for the 1996 Hugo Boss Prize and won the Leone d'oro award at the 48th Venice Biennale (1999). He has been included in numerous biennial exhibitions, including São Paulo (1996), Istanbul (1997) and Venice (1995, 1997, 1999, 2001). His work has also been included in key international surveys of new Chinese art including “Cities on the Move” (Hayward Gallery, London, and tour, 1997) and “Inside Out: New Chinese Art” (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and tour, 1998).
The goal of the Ida Ely Rubin Artists-in-Residence Program, administered by Special Programs in the Office of the Arts, is to bring prominent visual artists to MIT for a period of at least two weeks. During the residency, the artist delivers a public presentation of their own work, creates a work collaboratively with students, and meets informally with students, faculty and staff.
While at MIT, Cai will pursue projects exploring the relationship between art and technology, embracing the creative spirit of the members of the MIT community. Upon completion of his Rubin residency, Cai will continue his residency at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center.
Cai is also one of 15 international artists whose work will be included in Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art's "Pulse: Art, Healing, and Transformation" (May 14-August 31), an examination of the complex relationship between the creative process and healing.
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