Environmental Woes Inspire Public Art

August 18, 2014  |   Events,   Feature,   Initiatives,   World
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One of China’s most well-known artists, Cai Guo-Qiang, uses stark imagery to shed light on environment issues. The Ninth Wave contemplates man’s destruction of nature. The project is on view until 26 October 2014.

Upon entering the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, visitors come across the massive installation The Ninth Wave, also the title of the exhibition. It is a towering fishing boat with 99 fabricated animals on board. The boat comes from the artists’s home town, Quanzhou in Fujian Province. The inspiration for the piece came from the incident last year of 16,000 dead pigs found floating in the Huangpu river.
Upon entering the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, visitors come across the massive installation The Ninth Wave, also the title of the exhibition. It is a towering fishing boat with 99 fabricated animals on board. The boat comes from the artists’s home town, Quanzhou in Fujian Province. The inspiration for the piece came from the incident last year of 16,000 dead pigs found floating in the Huangpu river.

These nightmarish scenes are not science fiction but part of a new art exhibition by New York-based Cai aims to shed light on China’s environmental problems.

Installation view of "The Ninth Wave" in the Great Hall of the Power Station of Art in Shanghai. (Photo: Zhang Feiyu, courtesy Cai Studio)
Installation view of “The Ninth Wave” in the Great Hall of the Power Station of Art in Shanghai. (Photo: Zhang Feiyu, courtesy Cai Studio)

About the artist

Cai Guo-Qiang was born in 1957 in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China, and lives and works in New York. He studied stage design at the Shanghai Drama Institute from 1981 to 1985 and attended the Institute for Contemporary Art: The National and International Studio Program at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City. His work is both scholarly and politically charged.