Cai-Guo Qiang - "I Want to Believe" at the Guggenheim

We saw the Murakami exhibit a few weeks back at the Brooklyn Museum. Except for the "flower room" there was not much one would consider exciting or inspiring at this exhibit. From an aesthetic standpoint -- forget the commercialism and the presence of the Louis Vuitton accessories being gobbled up by visiting Eurotouros-- there was something a little too reductive and hollow about the show, like they could have shoehorned most of what was interesting and sincere about the content of this huge show into Manhattan's "Museum of Sex" and still had enough room for (to paraphrase Fred Allen) three carraway seeds and Bruce Ratner's heart.

On the other hand, the soon-to-be closing Cai Guo-Qiang's exhibit at the Guggenheim is remarkable, creative, inspiring, dramatic, and visionary.

The installation at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is remarkable both in Cai Guo-Qiang's work and in the huge and impressive way it has been incorporated into the Frank Lloyd Wright structure. The exhibition of "Inopportune" with its lifesize exploding Ford Taurus's hurtling (metaphorically)from the ground up through the atrium to the roof of the Guggenheim is breathtaking. The life-size clay sculptures of Chinese farmers and landlords lining the ramp of "New York Rent Collection Yard," the incredible rush of a huge pack of life-size snarling (some almost cute) wolves in mid-flight, the re-creation of antique ships and thousands of arrows, or antique ships and tons of broken porcelein, the gunpowder paintings, the videos of the firework extension of the Great Wall in the Gobi Desert -- the artist appears to be an unlimited source of energy and creativity. I guess in these politically complex and confused times, issues can be found with the artist's association with the forthcoming Beijing Olympics (he is involved in the designing of certain key events) which is supported by the People's Republic of China. The artist is being offered a world-wide showcase for his dramatic and inspired vision. There is nothing cold, abstract or exploitative here. Cai Guo-Qiang explores social realism, technology (both contemporary and archaic), nature, and the spirit. His concept of "Everywhere is Musuem" explores locally curated sites (former military bunkers, the Gobi Desert, Chinese waterfront areas) to promote contemporary art with community involvement where art is often not regularly viewed). It will be amazing to see that vision enacted on a world stage. (At the Guggenheim through May 28th)

http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/exhibition_pages/cai.html