News: Cai Guo-Qiang's (Literally) Explosive Art

Attention all WonderHowTo explosive-lovers, here is an artist that just may awe and inspire...

China's Cai Guo-Qiang opts for more thrilling materials than traditional paint, clay or plaster, say. Instead, Cai has mastered the art of gunpowder, fireworks and other pyrotechnics (not to mention taxidermy).

Says Wikipedia, Cai's work largely reflects on themes such as:

"...feng shui, Chinese medicine, dragons, roller coasters,computers, vending machines, wildlife, portraiture, non-Han Chinese citizens and their cultures, fireworks and gunpowder. Much of his work draws on Maoist/Socialist concepts for content, especially his gunpowder drawings which strongly reflect Mao Zedong's tenet 'destroy nothing, create nothing.'"

The result is nothing short of thrilling: a stampede of taxidermied wolves, hunted and slain tigers, beautiful drawings made with gunpowder, an indoor rollercoaster, spectcular firework displays, and suspended, somersaulting LED-lit, life sized, real cars (just to mention a few).

Peruse the images and videos below.

Wow. Start small. Baby steps. How to make hidden fire text on paper with saltpeter.

• Previously, Remarkable Trompe-l'oeil Turns Artist into Enemy of State.
• Paper-made Girls.