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
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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.
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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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