The Cellar Image of the Day

From the "cool art" dep't:

It's 99 life-sized wolves, made over a period of six months out of sheepskin, straw, and other such materials. They crash into a thick pane of glass and tumble in confusion onto the floor. The lead animals are the ones crashing, but clearly the pack is headed for the smackdown as well.

It's called "Head On", one part of a three-part installation by Chinese contemporary artist Cai Guo-Qiang, made as a commissioned piece for the Deutsche Bank Collection in Berlin.

From the press release:

Quote:

The title work Head On lends its name to the exhibition and takes over most of the exhibition gallery in its physical volume. The installation consists of a pack of 99 life-sized wolves barreling in a continuous stream towards—and into—a constructed glass wall. Other works in the exhibition include the aforementioned 9 x 4 meter gunpowder drawing showing hundreds of wolves whose bodies form a giant vortex and the two-channel video work Illusion II.

The wolves were produced in Quanzhou, China, from January to June of 2006. The commissioned local workshop in Cai’s hometown specializes in manufacturing remarkable, life-sized replicas of animals. First, small clay models were created as movement studies, out of which Cai subsequently developed Head On’s artist editions of cast resin wolves. However, the realistic and lifelike 99 wolves that grew out of these models and drawings possess no literal remnants of wolves: they are fabricated from painted sheepskins and stuffed with hay and metal wires, with plastic lending contour to their faces and marbles for eyes.

Woah! That's incredibly realistic. Why the hell did they need 99 wolves though... they could have done just as well with thirty or forty.

"99 life-sized wolves, made over a period of six months out of sheepskin..."

Wolves in sheep's clothing?

I like this display a lot. I don't really understnad what it's supposed to mean, but I like it still. I really like it that the wolves are made from sheep. I don't know if the artist meant it to be funny, but it is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by glatt

Very dramatic, lots of movement and energy.

Could it be a metaphor for the anticipated influx of Eastern Europeans into Western Europe with the glass representing the economic divide?

I'm sure the Berlin wall was an influence, what with it's location and all.

Someone should put an adorable stuffed kitty on the other side of the glass.

Or a little pig dressed as a construction worker. "The fourth little pig built his house out of wolf-proof glass. He's safe as long as he doesn't throw stones."

They sure went to a lot of trouble to make them look like 99 different wolves. I like it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by glatt

Oh. My. God! Disturbing but funny. Metaphor for the human race?

And bugger! Sundaegirl was right. I just caught myself whistling '99 Red Balloons'. Damn the Chinese, so that's their master plan for world domination, not communism but communal whistling of dodgy German tunes! Inscrutable bastards!

Quote:

“My work is sometimes like the poppy flower. It has this almost romantic side, but yet it also represents a poison,” says Cai Guo-Qiang, who harnesses the explosive power of gunpowder to create epic works that are born in violent on-site acts of performance. For his show "Inopportune" at MASS MoCA, Cai explores catastrophe, pain and the meaning of terrorism in the world since September 11th with an installation of tumbling cars that follow a path through the air. In neighboring galleries, a video imagines a car bomb in Times Square and a series of stuffed tigers pierced by arrows elicits a disturbing, visceral reaction. “Behind all this is a very earnest and frank look at our society today,” says Cai.

I can't really explain why, but I really like it. And as a general rule, I don't like installation art. In fact, I can only think of one other "art" IOTD that I've ever liked: the curtain of rainbow-colored hanging balls a couple of weeks ago.

I like the idea of an airborne flow of animals. And the ones running into the glass just make me laugh every time I think about it--like they're not hurt, just humiliated. Embarassed wolves are funny.

Yep. The kids love it. "The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish" is good too, but they prefer the wolves.

I would suggest you keep your mouth shut and make yourself scarce, in 19 days or so.

This art display is obviously a warning to those who are thinking about building a wolf cannon to take over the world.