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Cai Guo-Qiang — Life Beneath the Shadow: The Brahan Seer
Cai Guo-Qiang

Life Beneath the Shadow: The Brahan Seer

2005

A dramatic and explosive composition created through Cai Guo-Qiang's signature gunpowder technique, where controlled detonations leave scorched, smoldering marks across paper infused with ink. The resulting imagery evokes the mystical visions of the legendary Scottish prophet Kenneth Mackenzie, known as the Brahan Seer, with dark, turbulent clouds of ash and soot suggesting prophetic darkness and the unknowable future. The volatile nature of the medium mirrors the tension between destruction and revelation, echoing the Seer's tragic gift of foresight.

Medium
gunpowder and ink on paper

🔨 Auction Lot

20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Evening Sale

November 27, 2016

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About this work

Cai Guo-Qiang, Life Beneath the Shadow: The Brahan Seer, 2005

A dramatic and explosive composition created through Cai Guo-Qiang's signature gunpowder technique, where controlled detonations leave scorched, smoldering marks across paper infused with ink. The resulting imagery evokes the mystical visions of the legendary Scottish prophet Kenneth Mackenzie, known as the Brahan Seer, with dark, turbulent clouds of ash and soot suggesting prophetic darkness and the unknowable future. The volatile nature of the medium mirrors the tension between destruction and revelation, echoing the Seer's tragic gift of foresight.

Medium
gunpowder and ink on paper
Year
2005
Seen at
Phillips, New York, London, Hong Kong

Related themes

Dramatic Mood, Male Artist, Dark And Mysterious, Mixed Media, Chinese Artist, Conceptual Art, Contemporary Artist, Mystical Mood, Gunpowder Art, 21st Century, Gunpowder On Paper, Monochromatic, Ink on Paper, Figurative, Black and White

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