Conversation@PAM | Cai Guo-Qiang: The Artist’s Materials

Join author Rachel Rivenc for a discussion of her book Cai Guo-Qiang: The Artist’s Materials. Discover the life, methods, and unique materials used by Cai Guo-Qiang, a groundbreaking figure in contemporary art. This book offers an intimate look at the creative process of an artist known for his innovative and insurgent work. Cai Guo-Qiang is the first living artist to be featured in the Getty Conservation Institute's The Artist’s Materials series.

Cai Guo-Qiang is among the most prominent artists active today, well known for his subversive use of materials especially gunpowder. His prolific, diverse artistic practice—which includes gunpowder drawings and paintings, explosion events, videos, multimedia installations, and site-specific works—draws on a personal belief system that freely blends symbols and tenets from Eastern and Western cultures. Cai’s work seeks to establish dialogues among different cultures, different periods of time, different species—always while probing our shared humanity and the connections that can be divined across space and time, out of chaos and disorder. Rivenc based her book on in-depth interviews with the artist and studio assistants as well as extensive examination, sampling, and scientific analysis of a wide range of artworks. This publication addresses the implications of Cai’s distinctive materials and processes and their associated conservation issues.

This program is presented in conjunction with PST ART: Art & Science Collide exhibition Cai Guo-Qiang: A Material Odyssey.

Tickets include museum admission, and complimentary parking. USC PAM Members are Free. If you are a PAM Member please email pamrsvp@usc.edu to RSVP.