Ch 22 #1 Cai Guo-Qiang. Dream vs Jim Campbell six stills from Fifth Avenue Cuaway #1

The sections in this chapter titled “Toward Theater: Performance and Installation” and  “The Digital Realm” caught my eye because of my husband. My husband was an electrician and studying to be an electrical engineer. He also has a huge passion for art. Therefore the decorations, lightings, and setup of our home has always been greatly influenced by digital technology and a new modern type glow. The Cai Guo-Qiang. Dream and Jim Campbell six stills from Fifth Avenue Cuaway reminds me of the art my husband and I love.

The Cai Guo-Qiang. Dream at the Shanghai Art Museum is an amazing full size room full of suspended lanterns and red sheets with industrial fans Blowing them into place. Everything except the lights are made of red silk. The lanterns are made of basic block-like shapes such as stars, cubes, cars, tanks, airplanes, and much more. Each lantern was supposed to have a candle inside but was replaced with small light bulbs. The motion of the sheets with the fan was said to give the illusion of red waves moving across the room floor. The amazing chamber represents a Dream but is not meant to have a straightforward meaning. The viewer is meant to manifest his own interpretation.

Jim Campbell’s six stills from Fifth Avenue Cuaway has 768 red LEDs to show slow motion images. These are just six stills of a pedestrian crossing the street. An amazing display of technology as it almost looks like it’s in motion but at the same time shows and illusion of an old movie real. The lights are a perfect representation of New York itself. It also shows the pedestrian pass through from the simple world and vanishes to the left in the digital distorted pattern. This can possibly be a illustration of mans growth and transition into technology and the digital world.

oth Cai Guo-Qiang’s Dream at the Shanghai Art Museum and Campbell’s six stills from Fifth Avenue Cuaway are amazing pieces but, in my eye, cannot be compared as they are completely different in meaning and are represented by different cultures.