Cai Guo-Qiang: Light Cycle: Explosion Project for Central Park
by: Eleey, Peter

Hardcover. New York, Asia Society/Creative Time, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 24 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Accordion binding. Very clean, unmarked copy with only minor edgewear. Commissioned to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Central Park, Cai's Light Cycle fireworks display lit the New York sky with a circle of explosions on a September night in 2003. This 24-page accordion book documents it all from planning to performance, executed by the famous Grucci fireworks family. Separating the book's hardbound cloth covers reveals a continuous folded sheet with reproductions of Cai's gunpowder drawings (made by burning scant gunpowder on paper) on one side and photographs of the event and text on the other. In an interview, the artist compares his drawings to "love-making" and explains some technical aspects of his displays, such as a computer chip in each explosive shell.