I have just read the book ‘ A Clan of Boats‘ (by the Faurschou Foundation 2013) commemorating Cai Guo-Qiang’s inaugural show for the Danish Faurschou Foundation. I had been aware of his gunpowder art at a superficial level, however now much better appreciate his approach and work, especially his use of the boat as a symbol for cultural exchange, and as vessels to connect people and places across time and space. The book quotes Foucault’s description of a boat as a heterotopia, a place that is not a place. Interesting concept.
Two works in particular resonate- the inflatable sheepskin raft installation titled ‘Cry Dragon/Cry Wolf:The Ark of Genghis Khan‘ (due to the links with Central Asia) and the ‘Reflection-A Gift from Iwaki‘ (where a salvaged wreck from the coast of Japan is shown with an overflowing cargo of broken white porcelain statuettes of the Buddhist Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of compassion). As it turns out, Cai was born in Quanzhou, a major port city on the maritime Silk Road, and a point of departure for Marco Polo on one of his expectations (supposedly to escort the 17-year-old Mongol princess bride Kököchin to her new husband in the Mongol Ilkhanate per Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quanzhou).