Ten years ago (ten years!) my dear, dear, dear friend Martin and I went to the Festival Fringe in Edinburgh. We saw the work of a Chinese artist named Cao Guo-Qiang who did ghostly portraits and other pieces using gunpowder. He even did a “black rainbow” over the castle. Haunting stuff.
Flash forward to me at the Power Station book shop looking at this child-colored pop up skyline of Shanghai. I had an immediate emotional reaction to it and declared it “the best art I’ve seen all day!”
Then I noticed it was just one piece from a collection of pop up art projects for kids.
Yup. Same fucking guy.
I love it when an art piece speaks to me. Love it even more when a whole collection does. But I love it most when an artist can, over and over.