cai guo-qiang and wu yulu: peasant da vincis

cai guo-qiang: peasant da vincis
rockbund art museum, shanghai
may 7th to august 8th, 2010

while in shanghai for the world expo 2010, designboom visited cai guo-qiang's exhibition
'peasant da vincis' at the rockbund art museum.

throughout his career, chinese artist cai guo-qiang has been exploring themes such as humanity,
the creative strength and energy of nature and its relationship with the universe.
'peasant da vincis' is the inaugural exhibition for the museum, the new contemporary
art institution located in the historic building that housed the first museum in china.

this is part one of the exhibition report, see part 2 here.



cai guo-qiang
yves klein's living brush, 2010
work commissioned by cai guo-qiang and created by wu yulu using metal, electronics, secondhand materials
image © designboom

coinciding with the shanghai world expo 2010, whose theme is, 'better city, better life',
the theme of cai's exhibition closely relates: 'peasants - making a better city, a better life'.
on this occasion, he presents a pioneering, cross-disciplinary project featuring 'cultural readymades',
a common element in his work, exploring the subject of human creativity, the universal desire
to innovate in the pursuit of modernity and the influence of nature, society, politics and other
cultural factors on invention.

cai guo-qiang's use of cultural readymades in his works is different from the early masters:
marcel duchamp, joseph beuys and andy warhol. not only does he use goods we see in everyday life,
or personal things that have an intimate relationship with their owners, he also uses objects born out
of collective consciousness in a specific social environment, which in themselves carry rich cultural
connotations and symbolic meanings. cai's decision to showcase unpretentious homemade inventions
of 'peasant da vincis' living in rural china in a museum in shanghai, maximizes the contrast and conflict
between these readymades and their surroundings, providing a platform of discussion of such topics
as the relationship between human creativity and its social and temporal context, the transformation
of the social identity of peasants of the chinese modernization process and western cultural perspectives.
the exhibition extends from cai's cross-disciplinary practice and his fascination with concepts
of experimentation, risk, failure and the human relationship to the universe. serving as creator, curator
and artist, cai has worked in collaboration with people from rural communities throughout china to
present their amateur inventions that he's collected for this inaugural exhibition.



cai guo-qiang
yves klein's living brush, 2010
work commissioned by cai guo-qiang and created by wu yulu using metal, electronics, secondhand materials
image © designboom

curating the exhibition, cai uses the mundane notion of 'peasant' and the realities they face
to question and contemplate china's modernization and urbanization accompanied by rapid social,
economic and cultural development in our globalized world.

cai has invited robot inventor wu yulu, his wife, their two sons and families to turn the entire
third floor of the museum space into a robot production workshop - 'wu yulu's robot factory'.
during the exhibition, new robots are constantly being built and completed, performing tasks
such as pulling a rickshaw, watering and picking flowers, playing instruments etc.
five robots commissioned by cai are also found painting and engaging in performative actions,
including jumping off walls and replicating the iconic gestures of modern and contemporary artists:
damien hirst, yves klein and jackson pollock. the creations of these artistic robots will be available
as limited editions.


cai guo-qiang
yves klein's living brush, 2010
work commissioned by cai guo-qiang and created by wu yulu using metal, electronics, secondhand materials
image © designboom




video by designboom




cai guo-qiang
robot mimicking the work of jackson pollock, 2010
work commissioned by cai guo-qiang and created by wu yulu using metal, electronics, secondhand materials
image © designboom




cai guo-qiang
robot mimicking the work of jackson pollock, 2010
work commissioned by cai guo-qiang and created by wu yulu using metal, electronics, secondhand materials
image © designboom




cai guo-qiang
robot mimicking the work of jackson pollock, 2010
work commissioned by cai guo-qiang and created by wu yulu using metal, electronics, secondhand materials
image © designboom




video by designboom




cai guo-qiang
a robot imitating the art of damien hirst, 2010
work commissioned by cai guo-qiang and created by wu yulu using metal, electronics, secondhand materials
image © designboom




video by designboom




a rickshaw pulling robot built by wu yulu
image © designboom

in the past, wu yulu developed 'no. 25', a robot which pulls a rickshaw, that is capable of carrying
its owner in tow for up to 6 hours on a single charge.


detail
image © designboom




video by designboom




detail
image © designboom




wu yulu constructing a robot in the makeshift workshop on the museum's third floor
image © designboom




testing the robot
image © designboom




testing the robot
image © designboom




music making robot with cymbals and megaphone
image © designboom




robot child
image © designboom




video by designboom




cai guo-qiang with robot inventor wu yulu and his family




cai guo-qiang
'peasants - making a better city, a better life', 2010

'peasants - making a better city, a better life' is painted ont the speckled and dilapidated
exterior wall of the andrews and george building, adjacent to the museum. the style of these
slogans are a throwback to propoganda banners and billboards in factories and farms all over china
from several decades ago, and such signs are still common today in rural areas.


cai guo-qiang was born in quanzhou city, fujian province, china in 1957.
he was trained in stage design at the shanghai drama institute, and since then,
his work has often been scholarly and / or politically charged.
in 1999, he was awarded the golden lion at the 48th venice biennale.
his work has been exhibited extensively on an international scale, with solo exhibitions
at the metropolitan museum of art, new york; musée d'art contemporain, lyon, france;
MoMA, new york; solomon r. guggenheim museum, new yor; taipei fine arts museum, taipei
to name a few.
he currently lives and works in new york.