USC Pacific Asia Museum Presents CAI GUO-QIANG: A Material Odyssey
Exhibition Explores World-Renowned Artist Cai Guo-Qiang’s Oeuvre Through Lens of Scientific Research Conducted by Getty,
Presented as Part of PST ART: Art & Science Collide
On view September 17, 2024 – June 15, 2025
Pasadena, Calif. (September 13th , 2024) – USC Pacific Asia Museum (USC PAM) announced today the presentation of Cai Guo-Qiang: A Material Odyssey, an exhibition based on the Getty’s extensive scientific research into world-renowned contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang’s lifelong engagement with gunpowder and pyrotechnics. From September 17, 2024, through June 15, 2025, the exhibition will almost fill the entire museum with a comprehensive selection of the artist’s gunpowder paintings and drawings, as well as scientific imagery that explores the nature of gunpowder, its influence on his work, and how his process has evolved through the last four decades.
A Material Odyssey is a companion to Cai’s new commission by Getty, WE ARE: Explosion Event for PST ART, a free daytime fireworks performance presented by Getty that will be staged on September 15 engaging aerial drones around, above, and inside the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, inaugurating PST ART with a spectacular realization of the initiative’s latest theme, Art & Science Collide. Conceived and choreographed by Cai in collaboration with his custom AI model cAI™, WE ARE integrates elements of AI, data science, the cosmos, and technology.
“We are proud to collaborate with Getty and the dynamic team at Cai Studios to bring this exhibition to USC Pacific Asia Museum,” said Dr. Bethany Montagano, Director of USC Museums. “Cai Guo-Qiang and his incredible creative output epitomize the innovative work USC is doing on the frontiers of art and AI. A Material Odyssey seamlessly connects with this year’s PST ART theme, Art & Science Collide and we are thrilled to bring this historic and transformative exhibition to our community.”
Cai has used gunpowder to create his works of art for four decades. This explosive material, invented in China over 1,100 years ago, has laid the foundation of his work. Gunpowder is the medium through which Cai channels invisible energy and attempts to bridge what he calls the seen and the unseen world. Its unpredictable nature dictates his artistic process and determines the outcome.
Since 2016, the Getty has embarked on a large-scale scientific study of the materials and processes central to Cai’s oeuvre. The study investigated questions about conservation of his works and explored the evolution of Cai’s artistic methodology. The exhibition will feature a series of gunpowder test pieces produced by Cai for the Getty to study. Cai’s works were examined under microscopes and by X-ray fluorescence imaging, which gives a map of individual elements across a surface. This scientific exploration enabled the Getty team to identify the pigments and dyes in the pyrotechnic powders that Cai uses. The tests were also exposed to intense light levels in Getty laboratories to assess their sensitivity to light to gain insight on how Cai’s work may change over time. The findings of the study will also be published as part of the Getty Conservation Institute’s series, The Artist’s Materials.
“Cai has embraced the use of gunpowder because he wanted to relinquish control over the creation process. No matter how precisely a gunpowder drawing is planned, the results are still unpredictable,” said Rachel Rivenc, lead curator and Head of Conservation and Preservation at Getty Research Institute. “With any artist it is important to understand their materials and process, and with Cai, the materials are so unusual and groundbreaking that getting to know them provides a whole new level of understanding of his work.”
A Material Odyssey is an educational journey highlighting the convergence of art and science in Cai’s practice and process. Visitors will learn about Cai’s early beginnings and experimentation with pyrotechnics and discover how he started working with gunpowder as a medium. Early work such as Shadow: Pray for Protection (1985-86) will be featured as an example of one of Cai’s most experimental paintings during this period.
A dedicated gallery will introduce visitors to the artist’s newest process involving cAI™ (pronounced “AI Cai”). Originating from the artist’s AI research starting in 2017, cAI™ deep-learns from Cai’s artworks, archives, and areas of interest. By emulating contemporary and historical figures Cai admires, cAI™ creates distinct personas that engage in dynamic debates, fostering an independent and free community. The Annunciation of cAI™ and Canvas on the Moon: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 38, two of the first works created as a collaboration between Cai and cAI™, will be on view.
The exhibition will feature highlights from USC PAM’s collection of more than 15,000 objects spanning more than four thousand years and the region extending from Persia to the Pacific Islands. The specially curated selection will include a range of objects that will offer a glimpse of the diverse range of cultural, historical, and artistic perspectives regularly presented in the museum. Four Shang dynasty oracle bones, dating to approximately 1200–1050 BCE, are examples of some of the fascinating objects in USC PAM’s permanent collection that will be on display. Each oracle bone’s surface is replete with cracks and incised characters that represent the earliest form of Chinese writing, with some direct precursors to classical Chinese. The inscriptions give insight into the pressing concerns of the Shang elite: natural phenomena, life events, crop health, battles, and more.
“The awe-inspiring nature of Cai Guo-Qiang’s work embodies many elements that we at USC Pacific Asia Museum hold dear,” said Rebecca Hall, USC Pacific Asia Museum curator. “Cai’s gunpowder drawings and paintings in the context of the permanent collection and historic building serve as a potent reminder that as we build and explore new frontiers in art and science, we are simultaneously in conversations with the past.”
In addition to artworks and scientific imagery, the exhibition will include videos illustrating the making of fireworks, the process of creating gunpower paintings, and interactive displays. A variety of dynamic public programs such as film screenings, workshops, and conversations will take place throughout the exhibition.
A Material Odyssey originally debuted in 2020 as a display within Cai’s solo exhibition Odyssey and Homecoming at the Palace Museum in Beijing. In 2021 it toured with Cai’s solo exhibition at the Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai. The presentation of Cai Guo-Qiang: A Material Odyssey at USC PAM is co-curated by Rachel Rivenc, Head of Conservation and Preservation at Getty Research Institute, Tom Learner, Head of Science at the Getty Conservation Institute, Andrew Perchuk, Deputy Director at Getty Research Institute, and Rebecca Hall, Curator at USC Pacific Asia Museum.
About Cai’s Studio
Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1957, Quanzhou, China) was trained in stage design at the Shanghai Theatre Academy in the early 1980s. From December 1986 to September 1995, he sojourned in Japan. Cai has resided and worked in New York since 1995.
Cai has excelled in a broad range of creative mediums, from painting, installation, video art, and performance art, to new technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), NFTs, blockchain, and artificial intelligence (AI). Grounded in the conceptual foundations of Eastern philosophy and contemporary social issues, his often-site-specific artworks interpret and respond to the local culture and history, establishing a dialogue between viewers and the larger universe around them. His famed gunpowder paintings, explosion events, and installations are imbued with a force that transcends the two-dimensional plane to oscillate freely between society and nature.
Over three decades, Cai has had numerous solo exhibitions in major art museums around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2006, and a retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 2008, the latter of which broke the museum’s then-attendance record of a visual art exhibition.
In 2015, Cai realized the explosion event Sky Ladder in his hometown of Quanzhou. The eponymous documentary film, directed by Academy Award winner Kevin MacDonald, was released globally on Netflix. In recent years, Cai embarked on his Individual’s Journey Through Western Art History—a series of exhibitions held in world-renowned museums, including the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow (2017); Museo del Prado, Madrid (2017); Uffizi Galleries, Florence (2018); National Archaeological Museum of Naples and Pompeii Archaeological Park (2019). In December 2020, on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the Forbidden City, Cai presented Odyssey and Homecoming, becoming the first contemporary artist to have a solo exhibition at the Palace Museum in Beijing. The following year, Odyssey and Homecoming traveled to the new Jean Nouvel–designed Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai, as one of the opening exhibitions.
Cai has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Golden Lion at the 1999 Venice Biennale, the Hiroshima Art Prize in 2007, and the 2009 Fukuoka Prize. In 2012, he was honored as a Laureate for the prestigious Praemium Imperiale in the painting category. The award recognizes lifetime achievement in the arts across categories not covered by the Nobel Prize. The same year, he was named as one of five artists to receive the first U.S. Department of State Medal of Arts for his outstanding commitment to international cultural exchange. His recent honors include the Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Award in 2015, the 7th Isamu Noguchi Award in 2020, the Rockefeller 3rd Award in 2022, and the 74th Art Encouragement Prize by Japan’s Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology in 2024. Cai also served as the Director of Visual Effects and Fireworks for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
About USC Pacific Asia Museum
An integral part of the University of Southern California, the USC Pacific Asia Museum creates inspiring encounters with the art, history and culture of Pacific Asia to promote intercultural understanding in the service of elevating our shared sense of humanity. Established in 1971, the museum is one of few U.S. institutions dedicated to the arts and culture of Asia and the Pacific Islands serving the city of Los Angeles and the Greater Southern California region. The museum’s historic building has served as a center for art, culture and learning in Pasadena since its construction in 1924 by pioneering collector and entrepreneur Grace Nicholson (1877-1948) as her residence and galleries. In its brief history, the museum has organized and presented a number of groundbreaking exhibitions, including the first North American exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art and the first exhibition of Aboriginal art in the United States. Exhibitions originated by the museum have traveled across the country and internationally. A leader in its academic work and committed to scholarship, USC PAM has produced more than 50 exhibition catalogs. Learn more at pacificasiamuseum.usc.edu.
About Getty
Getty is a leading global arts organization committed to the exhibition, conservation, and understanding of the world’s artistic and cultural heritage. Based in Los Angeles, Getty’s Foundation, Conservation Institute, Museum, and Research Institute work collaboratively with partners around the world. Getty shares art knowledge, and resources online at Getty.edu and welcomes the public for free at its Getty Center and Getty Villa.
About PST ART: Art & Science Collide
Southern California’s landmark arts event Pacific Standard Time—now PST ART—returns in September 2024 with more than 60 exhibitions from museums and other institutions across the region, all exploring the intersections of art and science—past, present, and future. Dozens of cultural, scientific, and community organizations will join the latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, to share groundbreaking research, create indelible experiences for the public, and generate new ways of understanding our complex world.
