Cai initially began working with gunpowder to foster spontaneity and confront the suppression that he felt from the controlled artistic tradition and social climate in China at the time. While living in Japan from 1986 to 1995, Cai explored the properties of gunpowder in his drawings, an inquiry that eventually led to his experimentation with explosives on a massive scale, and the development of his signature explosion events, exemplified in his series, Projects for Extraterrestrials. These explosion projects, both wildly poetic and ambitious at their core, aim to establish an exchange between viewers and the larger universe around them.
Cai quickly achieved international prominence during his tenure in Japan and his work was shown widely around the world. His approach draws on a wide variety of symbols, narratives, traditions and materials such as feng shui, Chinese medicine, dragons, roller coasters, computers, vending machines and gunpowder.
Celebration
Dragon-Sight
Five Olympic Rings: Fireworks Project for the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games
Inopportune: Stage One
Head On
Dream
Kaleidoscope: Time Tunnel
UFO
