MELBOURNE––In a spectacular new installation Mumuration (Landscape) (ends October 13, 2019) at Australia’s National Gallery of Victoria, Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang has created a flock of 10,000 porcelain birds.
Conceived by the artist especially for the NGV’s 2019 Winter Masterpieces parallel exhibitions, Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality and Cai Guo-Qiang: The Transient Landscape. This spectacular three-dimensional work features 10,000 suspended porcelain birds, each of which has been individually coloured by Cai’s signature gunpowder explosions.
National Gallery of Victoria
The gunpowder smudged birds fill an entire gallery, each delicately suspended from the ceiling––spiraling above in a dialogical fugue––until they reach their crescendo: a flock rendering “3D impression of a calligraphic drawing of Mount Li, where the tomb of the ancient warriors was located,” as Colossal writes.
The multi-part winter exhibition at the museum combines Cai’s contemporary work with the display of a selection of China’s famed ancient terracotta warriors.
Colossal
Experience the installation in the video below:
You can watch a time-lapse of the labor-intensive installation here .
Explore more of the artist’s diverse works on Instagram.
Installation view of Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality and Cai Guo-Qiang: The Transient Landscape at NGV International. Photograph Tobias Titz Photography
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