Terracotta Warriors and Cai Guo-Qiang

Review by Rhonda Dredge

The Winter Masterpieces exhibition is eagerly awaited each year for its insight into global art culture.

What will the NGV choose to bring out? Will the exhibition keep us talking over the long cold months?

At first the selection of the Terracotta Warriors from China seems like a dull choice.

After all, the warriors were discovered back in the 1970s and there has already been a huge buzz particularly when they were shown here in 1982.

Here were original earthenware soldiers made and buried near the Qin Emperor’s tomb over 2,000 years ago and no-one knew about them.

Now, however art has a twist and mere historical information about the size of a dig is not that exciting.

The curators have solved the problem by combining the warriors with the contemporary work of Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang who has been carrying out experiments with gunpowder for 30 years.

You don’t actually see the gunpowder in action, although a group of gallery members was present at a Williamstown warehouse when the artist lay fuse lines over his large painted and sculpted works then ignited them.

The explosive patterns have created visual texture, which serves as a metaphor for ideas of impermanence, in contrast to the longevity of the Imperial warrior caste.

Several installations explore this theme but the most memorable is the flock of starlings. That’s when the contrast recedes for it is pretty clear that Cai Guo-Qiang has similar interests to the Qin dynasty: how is group mentality manifest in form?

The starlings have been superbly cast in porcelain in various poses then blacked with gun powder remains and suspended from the ceiling in a flock that demonstrates the power of synchronicity.

A group of workers tied fishing line to more than 1,000 birds so they could be tilted at the right angle and their wings are beautifully represented, as are their eyes and beaks.

A closer look at the warriors shows their own synchronous markings, the slight bunch to the shoulders, curled hands and low slung belts of the unarmoured infantrymen, the larger size of the general, a thumbs up gesture in a kneeling archer.

The warriors were made out of soft clay that was pressed into moulds for the various body parts then assembled. They were then fired in a big furnace at 1000 degrees centigrade but the furnaces have never been found.

Even though the site in Lintang Province has yielded 2,000 warriors from reassembled fragments only a small percentage has been evacuated.

Terracotta Warriors and Cai Guo-Qiang is on at the NGV until October 13. Ngv.vic.gov.au