Saturday, February 13, 2010

Fallen Blossoms in Philadelphia


Cai Guo-Qiang - Life Scroll, 2009

I am posting a selection of photos from Cai Guo-Qiang’s Fallen Blossoms at The Fabric Workshop and Museum. Doubtless, many more people will have seen his parallel works on view simultaneously at Philadelphia Museum of Art; but I hope to provide a glimpse of what he did for FWM for those who may not get to see it. In order to avoid a conflict of interest, I will refrain from commenting on the exhibition, other than to say that the five resident weavers are doing amazing work that deserves to be seen by more people.


Cai Guo-Qiang - Time Flies Like A Weaving Shuttle, 2009-2010


Detail of a tapestry

Having been invited to participate as resident artisans by Cai Guo-Qiang and FWM, this group of five extraordinary women has travelled from a village in the Xiangxi region of Hunan Province, China. To give you an idea of how remote that is, it took 30 hours for them just to get to Beijing so that they could start their journey to the U.S.A. Each of them has been practicing their craft on traditional looms such as these for decades and it really is a wonder not only to see them at work, but also to appreciate the tapestries that they have completed. The subjects of these tapestries are inspired by their interpretation of the life story of the late Philadelphia Museum of Art Director Anne d’Harnoncourt.

Be sure to scan through my gallery to see more images of the exhibition, including the manmade river washing over his latest gunpowder drawing.


Cai Guo-Qiang - Fallen Blossoms: Explosion Project, 2009


Cai Guo-Qiang - Timeline, 2009

No comments:

Post a Comment