Artist Cai Guoqiang returns to nature for Queensland exhibition
Cai Guoqiang's Queensland exhibition makes dramatic points about ecology, harmony and unity, writes Sue Green
For Queensland's tourism authorities it's a dream come true: a drawcard exhibition by a leading Chinese artist with two of its three major works inspired by the Australian state's landscape.
Little wonder then that artist Cai Guoqiang's first Australian solo exhibition, "Falling Back to Earth", is presented by Tourism and Events Queensland; that Cai and Chris Saines, director of Brisbane's Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (Goma), previewed it in Shanghai; and that holiday packages are available for those who leave the show wanting to see the places that inspired it.
[Tao Yuanming's prose poem] expresses the idea of going home, of returning to the harmonious relationship between man and nature, and re-embracing the tranquillity in the landscape
"Since experiences triggered the work, it is a reasonable thing to say, 'Come and see the work and while you are here why not make your way to one of the very sites that inspired the Chinese artist'," says Saines.
Cai says he wanted to stage a show at the Queensland gallery with which he has had a long association, creating works for its second and third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in 1996 and 1999.
"In 2010 I came for a short visit. Everything at Goma seemed to be great, it had expanded, the sun is always shining. I did not know where to start," the artist says through an interpreter.
"In 2011 I came and brought my wife and children, and museum staff took me to see different landscapes in Queensland and we went to Stradbroke Island and Lamington National Park.