Cai Guo-Qiang was born in 1957 in Quanzhou city, Fujian province, China. The son of a historian and painter, Cai was trained in stage design at the Shanghai Drama Institute from 1981 to 1985. His work has been scholarly and often politically charged. Having accomplished himself across a variety of media, Cai Guo-Qiang initially began working with gunpowder to foster spontaneity and confront the suppression that he felt from the controlled artistic tradition and social climate in china at the time. While living in Japan from 1986 to 1995, Cai explored the properties of gunpowder in his drawings. He experiments with explosives on a huge scale, creating shows that engage the audience. These explosion projects, both wildly poetic and ambitious at their core, aim to establish an exchange between viewers and their universe. Cai guo-qiang's practice draws on a wide variety of symbols, narratives, traditions and materials such as fengshui, chinese medicine, dragons, roller coasters, computers, vending machines and gunpowder. Through the years, Cai has formulated collaborative relationships with specialists and experts from various disciplines, including scientists, doctors, fengshui masters, designers, architects, choreographers and composers such as Issey Miyake, Raphael Vinoly, Zaha Hadid and Tan Dun.
Taken from: Design Boom: Cai Guo-Qiang on the roof http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/cai.html
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