As a young boy growing up during the Cultural Revolution, Cai Guo-qiang witnessed the turbulence of the era play out within his own family. His father was Cai Ruiqin, an accomplished calligrapher and painter with a vast library of great Chinese literature. His mother was illiterate and evidently not very happily married. Yet, despite painful memories of the time, Cai designed the fireworks display that opened the Shanghai APEC summit meeting.
Kevin Macdonald surveys Cai’s life and career while documenting his most ambitious project yet in “Sky Ladder: the Art of Cai Guo-Qiang,” which screens during the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
Guo-Qiang preparing a gunpowder drawing for the Arts of China Gallery at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts in October 2010. Cai Guo-qiang grew up during China's Cultural Revolution. Ed Schipul/CC BY-SA 2.0
