Cai Guo-Qiang Quotes

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Cai Guo-Qiang

Profession : Artist

Birth : December 8, 1957

I lived in Japan for eight years before moving to New York, but I was looking forward to a place like America to change my opinion on things and force me to come up with new perspectives.

Cai Guo-Qiang

Art should not be a tool of politics, but sometimes art can help make the political climate more open and help society become more free.

Cai Guo-Qiang

I tend to be cautious and rational, prone to keep everything under control.

Cai Guo-Qiang

I do believe every artwork has its own charisma. Sometimes it's different from what I expect. When a work is finished, it exudes its own charisma and lives its life independently.

Cai Guo-Qiang

One reason I chose gunpowder is that I had the good luck in my environment to be exposed to gunpowder. The other reason is I was always looking for a visual language that goes beyond the boundary of nations, and so I found gunpowder.

Cai Guo-Qiang

I have always been a coward as a child. I am not very brave. I am very aware of the fact that I am not very gutsy.

Cai Guo-Qiang

When I was young, I didn't want to do traditional painting and calligraphy. I deliberately wanted to separate from my father so I could feel I existed myself.

Cai Guo-Qiang

My father was also a painter - actually, a traditional Chinese painter. His personality is pretty timid and cautious. Like him, I was growing up as a cautious kid.

Cai Guo-Qiang

Anyone can be seduced by the possession of power and influence.

Cai Guo-Qiang

In my own art, I try to use my personal voice and effort to enable some Chinese people to see the possibilities of another kind of China. A more open China.

Cai Guo-Qiang

In Quanzhou, I have a lot of influence from superstition. I would go to the temple with my grandmother and mother. That is why I have a lot of curiosity about the unseen force and invisible things.

Cai Guo-Qiang