On a ladder to the stars
Cai Guo-Qiang, who built the dazzling Olympic ‘footprint’ fireworks, is reaching out to aliens
Cai Guo-Qiang is best known for designing the 2008 Olympic Games “giant footprints” – the amazing fireworks display that lit up the Beijing sky during the opening ceremony. Two billion people around the world witnessed the spectacle.
But it isn’t his only claim to fame.
In the semi-biographical documentary film “Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-qiang”, the 59-year-old New York-based artist reveals his dream project.
The film shows Cai – in a fishing village in his hometown of Quanzhou in Fujian province – igniting a 500-metre ladder of rope and gunpowder. The structure shimmers as it’s carried into the sky by a huge hot-air balloon.
This is the “Sky Ladder” of the title, one of his Projects for Extraterrestrials begun in 1990. Using fireworks, Cai is exploring the links between humankind and an unseen world.
The “Sky Ladder” stayed grounded three times before it finally rose above that fishing hamlet. Bad weather and security concerns prevented planned launches in Beijing, Bath in England and Los Angeles in the United States.
“People tried to persuade me to quit, but I persisted because this was a tribute to my 100-year-old grandmother,” Cai said at the documentary’s screening during the recent Shanghai International Film Festival.
His grandmother was there to see his dream project take flight. She’d been the first in his family to believe in his abilities. More than 1,000 other people watched the movie with her in its first screening on the Chinese mainland.
The film has been streamed on Netflix to around 190 countries since last October.
of an exhibition of his art in Shanghai. Courtesy of Cai Studio/Netflix
The documentary, directed by Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald (“One Day in September”), traces Cai’s journey from his early days in Quanzhou.
In one scene, he has an emotional conversation with his ailing father. There’s also a clip from an old black-and-white movie in which he played the villain.
Cai described the shoot as “amazing, yet confusing”.
“For quite a long time, Kevin couldn’t figure out how to develop the story,” he explained. “He and his crew just followed me around for two years, always asking me questions.”
Cai chose Macdonald from a list of directors the producers provided. “Kevin had never been to China and knew very little about me and my art, so I immediately said I wanted him.
“I didn’t want someone who’d talk too much about my prizes or achievements. I wanted someone to tell my story through the perspective of an ordinary onlooker.”
The documentary idea emerged during a chat with Xiong Xiaoge, a renowned investor and founding partner of IDG Capital, during a flight to Russia in 2014.
Xiong, who was impressed by Cai’s art, brought on board fellow investors Wendi Deng, a Chinese-American businesswoman, and Liu Dejian, chairman of Fujian-based tech firm Netdragon Websoft.
Cai said he’s happy to see the documentary so well received. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and ranking site Rotten Tomatoes both give it high scores.
For the future, Cai plans to continue painting and producing his “gunpowder art”. “I feel I’ve been lucky,” he said. “I can do what I want to do.”
