Gunpowder art by Chinese artist shown at Manchester gallery

A piece of stunning work by Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang Saturday went on show in Manchester, Britain, for the first time outside Asia.

The painting, Unmanned Nature, dominates the brand new landscape gallery at Manchester's Whitworth Art Gallery, which opened on Saturday after a 15-million pounds makeover.

The 57-year-old artist, now based in New York, spent several weeks in Manchester installing the work which takes the space of three walls at the gallery.

It will be exhibited until June 21 at the Whitworth, a gallery administered by the University of Manchester.

Unmanned Nature, created in 2008, is a 45-meter-long, four-meter-high gunpowder drawing. It is the first piece of artwork to be shown in the Whitworth's new landscape gallery.

Cai Guoqiang, born in Quanzhou City in Fujian Province, is best known for his remarkable projects using gunpowder, including the firework displays for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The artwork had been once shown in Japan's Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art and won Cai Guoqiang the Seventh Hiroshima Art Prize, awarded every three years to an artist who has made the greatest contribution to peace in the field of art.

"Cai Guoqiang's work, with its readings of gunpowder not only as a weapon but also as a medium of spiritual creativity and transformation, is very timely as we commemorate the centenary of the First World War," the gallery spokeswoman said.

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