As a child, his artistic enlightenment was the beauty of the country painted by his father on the matchbox, and the ripples set off by his mother when she was dressed by the river.
When he grew up, he used gunpowder as a paintbrush, used the sky as a cloth, used fireworks as a medium, cooperated with Tiangong, spent ten years exploring the beauty in the smoke of gunfire, and finally created one human wonder after another.
Not only that, he also used 29 big footprints to lead the world to the Beijing Olympics, paid tribute to the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People with long live of the people, and celebrated his grandmother's 100th birthday with a ladder that amazed the world...
He is the world's top fireworks master, the most able to play with fire man, Cai Guoqiang.
Cai Guoqiang, born in 1957 in Quanzhou, Fujian Province, his father Cai Ruiqin is the manager of a state-run bookstore, and he is also a well-known painter and calligrapher.
Therefore, Cai Guoqiang sat on his father's lap since he was a child, watching him sketch the beautiful landscape with a few strokes on the matchbox, and slowly this became the enlightenment of Cai Guoqiang's art.
His father had been born for art all his life, buying books every month for a salary, but telling Cai Guoqiang that these books were the most precious assets he had left him.
Unfortunately, Cai Guoqiang in his youth caught up with the most turbulent decade, his father was persecuted, and almost all the books in the family were burned, until cai Guoqiang resumed the college entrance examination, cai Guoqiang re-joined hands with art and was admitted to the stage art department of the Shanghai Theater Academy.
In 1985, after graduating from the opera, Cai Guoqiang wanted to enter the academy of fine arts, but he required a professional counterpart, and he had no choice but to try to be a freelance painter, but at that time, it was the period of reform and opening up, and the mainstream style of art was still praised and yearned for, and Cai Guoqiang's style was too fanciful to be integrated into it.
The unit could not go in, the free painter could not do it, and had no choice but to return to his hometown of Quanzhou to look for opportunities.
Subsequently, due to a careless act by his grandmother, he found that the scorched black after the explosion of gunpowder could even be painted, so he embarked on a path of "playing with fire".
In 1986, under the introduction of a teacher, Cai Guoqiang went to Japan to study and promote his explosive art, and lived in Japan for the next 9 years, and let his works go from unpopular to amaze everyone.
In 1993, he returned to China to create "The Great Wall extended by 10,000 meters - a plan for aliens", at the end of the Great Wall, the gunpowder was spread all the way into the desert, when the distant train gradually approached, Cai Guoqiang lit the lead fire snake with the roar of the train spread, all the way into the desert, this time the fireworks became one of Cai Guoqiang's classic works.
Gradually, Cai Guoqiang became more and more famous, and his works received more and more attention.
The more people he paid attention to, the more innovative inspiration Cai Guoqiang needed, so in order to hear more voices, in 1995 Cai Guoqiang moved to New York to find new creative inspiration.
In fact, at this time, in addition to the gunpowder paintings that He had always been enthusiastic about, Cai Guoqiang also began to do large-scale installation exhibitions, and was invited to France, Venice and other countries to participate in art exhibitions.
But no matter how much applause and affirmation he receives abroad, Cai Guoqiang is most worried about his hometown, and he has always wanted to do something for his hometown.
So in 1998, he collected a dilapidated fishing boat from his hometown of Quanzhou and spent a huge amount of money to sail to the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
The wrecked fishing boat had a five-star red flag in its bow, its hull was full of arrows, and underneath the high hull was a dilapidated plank, through which sunlight could be seen through the transparent ceiling.
This work called "Grass Boat Borrowing Arrows" attracted the attention of many people after it was exhibited, but after completing the tour, Cai Guoqiang spent a lot of money to transport the "broken ship" back to Quanzhou, which can also be seen from his obsession with his hometown.
Since then, Cai Guoqiang's life has been like opening the accelerator key, winning awards and conquering the world with unique works...
In 1999, Cai Guoqiang won the "Golden Lion Award" of the international art world with "Venice Rent Collection"; in 2002, in order to soothe the pain caused by the "911" incident to the people of New York, Cai Guoqiang lit a moving rainbow over the East River in Manhattan, and used gunpowder to blow up a ray of warmth in the sky for people after the disaster; in 2003, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the establishment of New York's Central Park, Cai Guoqiang lit a "wheel of light" over the park.
In 2006, at the Guggenheim Museum in Berlin, Germany, Cai Guoqiang used 99 simulated wolves and a glass wall to complete the work "Crashing into the Wall".
In the work, the movement of each wolf is carefully carved, he uses the most animalistic wolf tribe to represent human nature, and the invisible wall symbolizes the invisible Berlin Wall in the real world, even if the Real Berlin Wall has collapsed, but the invisible wall that history has left in society and people's hearts is not something that can be torn down in a short time.
In 2008, Cai Guoqiang held a solo retrospective exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, which attracted 350,000 visitors, breaking the record for the admission of artists in the venue.
In the same year, Cai Guoqiang returned to Beijing as the general director of fireworks for the Beijing Olympic Games, and contributed 29 big footprints that shocked people around the world for this event, step by step bringing people from ancient times to the present, from Oliver to Beijing, becoming a scene in many classic scenes of the Beijing Olympic Games.
Later, Cai Guoqiang mentioned in an interview that he once visited the opening ceremony of the Athens Olympic Games and was shocked by the grand opening ceremony.
Therefore, when he learned of the success of Beijing's Olympic bid, he realized that he should do something, so he took the initiative to participate in the bidding, and finally successfully qualified to become the only designated person in charge of fireworks in the Beijing Olympic Games, which had the opening "big footprint" to bring the event directly into the climax and was recorded in history.
In 2013, Cai Guoqiang was invited by the Paris White Nights Festival to light a romantic purple firework on the romantic Seine River, accompanied by 50 tents and tents for couples from different countries.
In 2014, Cai Guoqiang drove an abandoned fishing boat from his hometown of Quanzhou to the Huangpu River to create the daytime fireworks "Nine Levels of Waves", which is used to commemorate the natural environment destroyed by humans.
"Nine Levels of Waves" is divided into three chapters, all using degradable environmental dyes, which move the fireworks that could only shine at night to daytime.
The first chapter of the elegy, with a black and white opening to suppress the atmosphere solemnly and solemnly, the end part in the black smoke of the sky a symbol of vitality of the green and vigorous rise, alluding to hope.
In the second chapter, colorful colors dot the sky over the Huangpu River, bringing people back to the once vibrant nature.
The third chapter of consolation, with golden as the main color, encourages people to have a chance to save the earth on which we live, and on that day there was a gentle drizzle on the Huangpu River.
Therefore, when the third chapter was fired, the black of the first chapter had not completely faded, and the drizzle and smoke dye were entangled together and had not dissipated for a long time, adding a little romance to the performance, which was the uncertain surprise brought about by the explosion that Cai Guoqiang had been pursuing.
However, this uncertainty has also made his favorite work a full 21 years late, that is, "Ladder", which was Cai Guoqiang's childhood dream, building a ladder to go to the sky to see.
In 1994 in the British town of Bath, Cai Guoqiang put his dream into reality for the first time, but the sky was not beautiful, when everything was ready, the rain poured down, and all the plans were destroyed, because the preparation process was too complicated, and after destruction, it could not be repaired and restarted, and the dream could only be temporarily stranded.
However, he has never given up the desire to "build a ladder to see the sky" in his heart, and he has been waiting for the right time.
In 2001, Cai Guoqiang served as the general director of the APEC meeting fireworks show, he once again mentioned the ladder plan, the preliminary procedures were very cumbersome, it was difficult to reach the last hurdle, but because of the "911" incident sky control policy indented, and the height of the ladder has touched the control line, failed to pass the approval, and finally the organizing committee killed the project.
Although he failed again, Cai Guoqiang was still unwilling and unwilling to give up, and continued to wait for the right time.
In 2012, at the traveling exhibition in Los Angeles, Cai Guoqiang stubbornly set the name of the exhibition directly as "Ladder", which is to predict that this plan must be completed.
All the preparatory work this time was very smooth, just when Cai Guoqiang thought that it was foolproof, he was notified at the last moment that the firing was suspended, and the reason was still safety.
Three consecutive times passed by the dream, but Cai Guoqiang's desire to talk to the sky was getting stronger, and the idea of building a ladder did not weaken at all.
In 2015, he returned to the small fishing village in Quanzhou, where his dream began, and with the help of local fishermen, he began to secretly implement the "Ladder" program, and the fishermen involved in building the Ladder were not professionals, and no one signed a confidentiality agreement.
However, they all tacitly chose to keep Cai Guoqiang secret and say nothing to the outside world, and this time Cai Guoqiang also held the determination to win, because this was the hundred-year-old gift he was going to give to his grandmother.
Fortunately, this time, the weather and place were favorable, and finally at midnight, the hydrogen balloon that dragged the ladder slowly rose, ignited the lead before sunrise, and the fire light climbed all the way up the ladder to the sky.
After 21 years, Cai Guoqiang finally completed this dialogue with the sky, and his grandmother could not come to the scene because of his serious illness, Cai Guoqiang had to proudly shout across the screen, "Grandma, your grandson is powerful!" ”。
On that day, the whole performance lasted for 150 seconds, the video was instantly forwarded by tens of millions of netizens and detonated the YouTube after it was transmitted online, and Facebook's Facebook upload attracted 30 million people to watch in two days, more than 1 million retweets, and even appeared on the NBC News headline video.
Subsequently, Academy Award director Kevin McDonald spent two years filming the documentary "Ladder: The Art of Cai Guoqiang" for Cai Guoqiang, which scored 8.6 points on Douban.
Cai Guoqiang's grandmother died of illness a few months after the completion of the ladder work, but in Cai Guoqiang's view, if there is really a heaven, then his ladder must be able to connect with the grandmother above, and she will always look at herself in heaven and protect herself.
The successful firing of the ladder not only raised Cai Guoqiang's international status again, but also allowed people around the world to see the charm of oriental aesthetics and the heritage of China's thousand-year-old civilization in his works.
At the same time, he was asked why he didn't simply emigrate to live abroad with a more open artistic atmosphere. Cai Guoqiang firmly said: The soul of these works comes from his hometown of Quanzhou, where he has his roots and his source, and only by keeping these works can he come up with amazing works and feel solid.
Indeed, since then, Cai Guoqiang has surprised the world with his own works.
In 2019, with strong patriotic enthusiasm, Cai Guoqiang set off fireworks in front of Tiananmen Square, this time to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
This time, Cai Guoqiang used more advanced digital special effects technology in the design of the fireworks show, symbolizing the huge fireworks digital "70" of the 70th birthday of the motherland, which was hit to a height of 300 meters, using a double-line modeling design, such a technological upgrade is unprecedented.
It was followed by four big characters "Long live the people", which is the great purpose of the country that has persisted for a hundred years.
In showing the rapid changes in the motherland, Cai Guoqiang pioneered the three-dimensional dynamic special effect fireworks tree, and set up 7 25-meter-high fireworks trees in Tiananmen Square.
The fireworks trees are heavily organized, constantly changing angles during the performance, with brilliant lights, presenting different theme pictures such as the change of the four seasons, peacocks opening the screen, peony blooming, kite swaying, laughter and so on.
This dynamic scene composed of fireworks and three-dimensional design presents a more powerful scene.
The performance ends with climactic music, and fireworks in the air form a thriving towering tree, a veritable fire tree and silver flowers, symbolizing the prosperity of the great motherland.
Each session of the show is accurate to milliseconds and converted into time codes, controlled by professional software to ensure that nothing goes wrong.
The fireworks used in the performance are all high-tech environmentally friendly fireworks, the composition of gunpowder does not contain heavy metals, and the sulfur content is greatly reduced, reducing the pollution caused by sulfides to the environment during the blasting process.
That year, Cai Guoqiang was 62 years old, and when he watched the last firework burn out and the whole performance ended perfectly, he excitedly ran through the ancient city gate and flipped his head happily under the empty city gate.
He finally used the "fire" in his hand to make the dream amaze the world and make the world admire China.
Of course, Cai Guoqiang's footsteps still did not stop, but continued his "playing with fire" road, and he was always ready to surprise the world with "fire" again.
Not long ago, Cai Guoqiang opened a personal video account and accepted an interview with the platform, he now has an important task, that is, the fireworks show at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, he bid farewell to his mother who was seriously ill in bed and was already a candle, and hurried to Beijing, ready to show the world again the strength and splendor of the motherland.
What kind of surprises will this man who can play with fire the most bring?