Moments of calm

An artist with a sense of drama grasps the power of introspection for his current exhibition, Ou Shuyi reports from Brisbane.

Even without his usual gunpowder and explosions, artist Cai Guoqiang (Cai Guo-Qiang) still has the power to wow viewers with his poetic and serene installations in his first solo exhibition in Australia. Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling Back to Earth, which opened at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane in mid-November, shows the artist's shift toward a more grounded engagement. Cai's two commissioned installations, Heritage and Eucalyptus-both monumental in scale and with strong visual impact-feature motifs drawn from the natural world. "They represent my childlike innocence but also convey solemnity, confusion and reflection of the real world," explains Cai, who has painted the sky with gunpowder and flames in his signature art projects across the world.

Speaking in Mandarin with the strong accent of his native Fujian province, the New York-based artist looks fit and younger than his mid-50s, with a severe brush-cut of hair.