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Dilation and Collapse: Global Meandering with New York as the Center, September 1995–present

In September 1995, I received a grant from the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) for the Japan–U.S. Artist Exchange Program and moved to New York. While many people came to the United States to seek gallery representation or strive to exhibit in art museums, I applied to enter the Nevada Nuclear Test Site, where I then held in my hand a small tube containing gunpowder extracted from firecrackers and exploded a small “mushroom cloud.” It is both a tribute to the 20th century, aka the “American Century,” and a questioning of whether the iconic visual symbol of the 20th century is contemporary art, or, in fact, a colossal mushroom cloud. Such provocative questioning was what I did first upon arriving in the United States, and constituted my debut. The artwork conveyed a sense of crisis in human civilization, symbolized by nuclear power, and echoed the concept of my earlier Projects for Extraterrestrials: humanity’s longing to venture into space, to search for superior extraterrestrial civilizations, and to help overcome the challenges of humankind.

My works were soon exhibited and collected at the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and more. In 1999, I won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale. Many of my works started to revolve more around the themes of the fate of humanity, as well as historical and socio-political issues. This also reflected the transformations of my art nurtured within a Western cultural context and environment.

At the same time, the path remained convoluted and complex. From Oxford to Normandy, from Queensland to Stockholm … Project setbacks one after another made me “ashamed to face the Yangtze River”—unable to return to my hometown due to the shame of failure! My ideas for explosion events “Bigfoot’s Footprint” and “Sky Ladder” endured decades of trying.


#30
Sketch for Dragon or Rainbow Serpent: A Myth Glorified or Feared: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 28
1996
Photocopy of original made with pen on printed paper
32 x 21 cm

#31
Sketches for Dragon or Rainbow Serpent: A Myth
Glorified or Feared: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 28
2023
Marker on scan of original sketch
29.5 x 42 cm each

#32
Sketch for Blue Dragon (Unrealized)
1999
Pen on printed plan
42 x 73 cm

After a series of successes, I began to experience major setbacks. In 1996, as a commission for the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, I conceived the explosion event Dragon or Rainbow Serpent: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 28 for the Brisbane River in Australia. The plan was for the lightning-like explosion to descend from the sky into the riverbed, race along the highway, and re-enter the river, emerging and submerging multiple times before finally snaking its way under the bridge of Brisbane.

However, the day before the opening, a local fireworks factory had an explosion accident (unrelated to my project). While the art museum’s team and I were fortunately safe at the scene, all of our fireworks products were destroyed in the blast. The museum quickly issued a statement explaining that the incident had nothing to do with me, and reassured me: “We will bring you back quickly and reignite the dragon on the Brisbane River!”

These drawings for my attempted explosion event and the related letters, as well as the news report after the accident, reveal that my journey was not without challenges when I was younger. It also shows how I managed to rise above these setbacks with the unwavering support of those around me.

#33
Bigfoot's Footprints: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 6
1990
Gunpowder and ink on paper
65 x 49.5 cm

The history of the proposed explosion event Bigfoot’s Footprints: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 6 consists of a series of attempts. Once, the footprints tried to walk from the Iwaki coast into the sea; later, in 1990, they wished to ignore national borders and cross freely across 2,000 meters between France and Germany; then, they tried to ignite into being at a battlefield in Normandy and the Washington Monument, too.

This series of extraterrestrial footprints, originally conceived during the Primeval Fireball era, eventually became the twenty-nine “Bigfoot’s Footprints” fireworks display at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. From Yongdingmen Gate to Tiananmen Square, to the Forbidden City and finally to the Bird's Nest stadium, these footprints traversed across the fifteen-kilometer-long central axis of Beijing, suggesting the presence of celestial giants and symbolizing a popular saying, “History has come to China, and China steps onto the world stage.” Over 1.5 billion people worldwide, in person or through live broadcasts, witnessed this momentous “dream” of globalization. However, I was afterwards labeled as someone who collaborated with the establishment.

#34
Drawing for Footprints of History
2008
Gunpowder on paper
400 x 3300 cm

#35
Extension
1994
Gunpowder on paper, mounted on wood
236 x 1564.8 cm
Setagaya Art Museum

The explosion event Project to Extend the Great Wall of China by 10,000 Meters: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 10 (1993), depicted in this drawing, was carried out during my time in Japan. In order to realize this event, I collaborated with P3 art and environment to organize a travel group from Japan, using part of the tour fees to supplement the very restricted budget for the project. Tourists also joined as project volunteers, working to help extend a 10,000-meter-long fuse from the western end of the Great Wall at Jiayuguan into the Gobi Desert.

At dusk, the fuse was ignited, and a wall of smoke with flames curled like a flying dragon across the land. Packets of gunpowder exploded at every kilometer, resembling beacons of blazing fire! I was delighted that there were a large number of spectators from Jiayuguan City—but was, in fact, more concerned about the eyes from beyond the earth, looking on from the cosmos. People often say that the Great Wall is the only human-made structure visible to the naked eye from space.

In the moment of explosion, my artwork was connected with the ancestral spirit of the Great Wall. At that instant, the Great Wall of China also became a part of my artwork.

#36
Making a Ladder to the Earth: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 20
1994
Gunpowder on paper
272 x 182 cm