Stairway to heaven: Artist creates stunning 1,650ft ladder in the sky with FIREWORKS

by Edward Chow and Emily Chan via “Daily Mail“

• Cai Guoqiang used metal and gunpowder for the show in Quanzhou, China
• The ladder, which measured 18ft wide, was taken up using a hot air balloon
• Artist drew a draft of the show 21 years ago when he visited Bath, England
• It was a labour of love for Mr Cai’s elderly grandmother who raised him
• Same artist designed the spectacular fireworks to open Beijing Olympics  

A Chinese artist has found a unique way to express his love to his grandmother: a gigantic staircase in the air.

These stunning photographs show the 1,650ft ladder, which was made with fireworks, stretch right up into the sky in Quanzhou, south-eastern China, on Monday.

This is the work of Cai Guoqiang, an artist who is originally from the city and now based in New York, reported the People’s Daily Online.

Sky Ladder: A Chinese artist has created this incredible burning ladder that stretches for 1,650ft into the sky

Lit up: The artwork, called ‘Sky Ladder’, is the artist’s way of thanking his grandmother who raised him

The ladder, which was made of metal wire and aluminum, was filled with gunpowder and attached to the bottom of a hot air balloon.

The balloon, which was made with special material, was launched from a boat off the shore of nearby Huiyu Island.

Called the ‘Sky Ladder’, the project started off as a dream for Mr Cai 21 years ago when he was visiting Bath, England. He designed the performance by drawing a draft of the design on the window of an art gallery.

He said he wanted to put on a spectacular fireworks show to thank his grandmother for supporting his dream of being an artist.

‘My grandma was born in a small fishing village in Quanzhou and sold fish to help her grandson realise his artistic dream,’ the artist revealed. . . . .

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“Forensic Astronomer Solves Fine Arts Puzzles”

by Jennifer Drapkin and Sarah Zielinski via “Smithsonian Magazine“

“In painter Edvard Munch’s Girls on the Pier, three women lean against a railing facing a body of water in which houses are reflected. A peach-colored orb appears in the sky, but, curiously, casts no reflection in the water. Is it the Moon? The Sun? Is it imaginary? Does it matter?

To Donald Olson, an astrophysicist at Texas State University, the answer to the last question is an emphatic yes. Olson solves puzzles in literature, history and art using the tools of astronomy: charts, almanacs, painstaking calculations and computer programs that map ancient skies. He is perhaps the leading practitioner of what he calls “forensic astronomy.” But computers and math can take him only so far.

For Girls on the Pier, Olson and his research partner, Texas State physicist Russell Doescher, traveled to Asgardstrand, Norway, the resort town where Munch made the painting in the summer of 1901. By mapping the area and studying old postcards, the pair determined the exact location of the original pier (which had been torn down), the heights of the houses and the spot where Munch likely stood. They then retraced the paths of the Sun and the Moon across the sky at the time Munch was there.

They concluded that the setting Sun did not appear in that section of sky at that time, but the Moon did. As for the missing reflection, it was not an artistic choice, as some art historians had proposed, but a matter of optics: from the artist’s perspective, the row of houses blocked it. . . .”