Painting with Gunpowder

This weekend I went to the Cai Guo-Quiang exhibition at the Guggenheim. I had never heard of this artist before but really liked some of his pieces. The entire atrium is filled with an installation that looks like a time lapse photo of a bomb sending a car flying through the air (but is actually real cars suspended from the ceiling). Another installation involved life sized tigers and rocks which visitors walked through as if they had entered the drawing on a Chinese scroll. 

The most notable aspect of Cai Guo-Quiang is his "paintings" where he uses explosives to create images. He works by laying fuse cord against heavy paper and interspersing fireproof layers with gunpowder (video below). I was underwhelmed by his early paintings which, to be honest, sometimes just looked like industrial accidents but his later works were elegant and detailed. One exceptional painting was a bird landing on a pine tree where the needles and feathers were outlined by the fringes of explosive marks. 

Regardless of personal preferences for the explosive pieces it was obvious that Cai was creative and innovative. It was also encouraging to see that he had the opportunity to improve and refine this technique to create some impressive works that were not just production novelties. 

This made me think about entrepreneurs and startups who are innovative and game changing but never get the opportunity to see their creation succeed. It seems almost a rule that the company that develops something totally new will not succeed or profit from their inventions. Everyone knows YouTube, but who remembers ShareYourWorld.com? Or who still uses Friendster in the face of Facebook? Perhaps I'm naive in the world of art and maybe there are artists that develop innovative techniques only to see them co-opted more successfully be others. However, it seems like the art world is willing to place value on brilliant ideas but the business world has a brutal memory that only recalls the financial successes.

Killer Cassette Tapes

This weekend I was at the house of a friend who has an old fashioned vinyl record collection. I got a laugh when I found this insert (photo below) in one of the albums. It's sad that the music industry perpetually hounds its customers not to share products that they enjoy. Can you imagine if publishers included bookmarks in every book warning that sharing novels kills the industry and harms authors? Ironically, it's the tapes that have died and the music industry that keeps thriving. 

Bath, England

Over the bank holiday weekend, Becky and I spent three days in Bath. Here's the quick rundown. Highlights:

• Stonehenge: Big rocks rock. I wonder what archaeologists will think 5000 years in the future when they see a stone circle surrounded by a circular path walked by hundreds of thousands of visitors each year and situated near the crossroads of two highways. Somehow I suspect that "pilgrims" and "tourists" look devilishly similar in the archaeological record.
• Roman Baths: Interesting museum complex with cool catwalks over the excavated temples.
• American Museum: Yes, it's odd for an American to visit this museum in Britain, but it was intriguing to revisit years of history classes in a single museum. It's a stark reminder that any sort of national museum is massively distilled, but the displays were well designed so we still found it engaging.
• Food: Not sure if this is specific to Bath or a fluke of better planning than normal, but we went to some really good restaurants. Two favorites were Demuths (desert: poached pears with lemon mascarpone cheese and sprinkled with crunchy honeycomb and fresh thyme - sounds crazy but the flavor was totally unique and very good) and The Fine Cheese Co (lunch: unpasteurized cheddar and chutney sandwich - simple and tasty).

Other sights included Bath Abbey, The Royal Crescent, Museum at Number 1 Royal Crescent (good), Building of Bath Museum (eh), Great Pulteney Street, various public gardens, and the closed doors of several sights that didn't bother to open on Bank Holiday Monday. This segues nicely to lowlights of the trip:

• Bath Rugby Team Party: The Bath Rugby team had a party in the garden next door to the hotel. And they had a DJ playing outside until 1:30am. And the police showed up but couldn't shut it down because it was the responsibility of the environmental agency to address sound complaints. HUH?
• Manual train switching: I love National Rail when it works. But when it doesn't it's a pain. Immediately after leaving London we were informed the train required "manual switching" which I don't know what that means but it resulted in us driving at about 10 mph and arriving an hour and a half late.
• Bath Spring Water: Healing properties be damned! The stuff tastes like stagnant well-water filtered with dirt.