Cai Guo-Qiang: A Material Odyssey
September 17, 2024–June 15, 2025
On September 17, Cai Guo-Qiang’s solo exhibition, A Material Odyssey, organized by Getty and the University of Southern California (USC) at the USC Pacific Asia Museum (PAM), opened to the public. The exhibition is rooted in the Getty Conservation Institute and the Getty Research Institute’s research, which began in 2016, on the materials and creative processes in Cai’s art. It traces Cai’s 40-year-long dialogue with gunpowder, including his latest painting explorations with AI. The exhibition features approximately 48 artworks and groups of works, along with a wealth of scientific research, filling almost all the galleries at PAM.
WE ARE: Explosion Event for PST ART
September 15, 2024
At 5:53 PM on September 15, under the last rays of daylight, around 4,500 spectators and nearly a hundred media representatives awaited on the field of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the daytime fireworks WE ARE: Explosion Event for PST ART, created by Cai Guo-Qiang in collaboration with his custom-developed AI model, cAI™.
In just over 30 minutes, five acts of fireworks spanned the 360-degree audience seats, the Olympic cauldron, and the airspace above the stadium. Utilizing approximately 50,000 daytime fireworks, 1,300 drones, nearly 4,000 bamboo poles, and close to 10,000 airbursts, WE ARE created a grand spectacle for AI’s dimensionality reduction to “reveal heavenly secrets,” and attempted to convey the response to the question “What is the fate of humanity with AI?” in a language comprehensible to humans. WE ARE was commissioned and presented by the Getty, in collaboration with the University of Southern California.
This marks Cai’s return to Los Angeles since his solo exhibition and explosion event at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2012. As the opening ceremony of this year’s PST ART: Art & Science Collide, WE ARE is also the first large-scale daytime fireworks and drone fireworks performance in U.S. history.
25 Comets: Explosion Event for MASS MoCA’s 25th Anniversary
May 24, 2024
On May 24th, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) held its 25th anniversary gala, celebrating its distinguished history as an incubator for contemporary art and honoring all the artists, collaborators, and diverse communities who have contributed to the museum.
Approximately 500 guests from around the world—all fatefully connected to MASS MoCA—gathered for the event. MASS MoCA board chair Mariko Silver, artists Nick Cave and Ann Hamilton, current director Kristy Edmunds, state representative John Barrett III, and founding director Joseph Thompson delivered heartfelt speeches. Cai Guo-Qiang, revisiting the site of his 2004 milestone solo exhibition, presented 25 Comets: Explosion Event for MASS MoCA’s 25th Anniversary as a surprise finale to the evening, bringing the sound of tolling bells and sparking inspirations for an unknown future …
Making History at TED2024: Cai Guo-Qiang “Speaks” English
April 16, 2024
On April 15, 2024, the 5-day TED2024 conference commenced in Vancouver, Canada. Marking the 40th anniversary of the organization’s founding, this year’s conference theme, “The Brave and the Brilliant,” centered on “celebrating creativity, ingenuity, courage, wisdom and generosity.”
For his talk, Cai utilized a custom-built AI model developed by metaphysic.ai to convert the live English interpretation of his Chinese speech in real time, using his own voice. This marked Cai’s first speech in English and also became the first instance in TED history of simultaneous interpretation using AI technology. The talk was received with a standing ovation.