It's Kitty K.: The amazing Cai Guo-Qiang and his masterpiece "HEAD ON"

Artwork Identification
Head On, Cai Guo-Qiang, 2006. Installation consisting of 99 life-sized replicas of wolves and glass.

Introduction
Cai Guo-Qiang's installation of 99 lifelike replicas of wolves running Head On into a glass wall is a visual allegory for the human condition. Cai's pack of wolves, relentlessly charging forward towards a sudden end, represents the will to heroically press on. It is at the same time both tragic and beautiful.

Descriptive Analysis
99 realistic looking wolves (which are actually constructed from painted sheepskins stuffed with hay and metal wires) appear to be running in a pack through the length of an empty white room, only to crash headfirst into a glass wall and consequently fall to the ground. Outside of a white entryway, about six stray wolves look as though they are casually entering the room where they join more wolves heading in the same direction. Along the length of the wall, the wolves quickly gain momentum and rise in a tight pack into an arc of simulated movement. The wolves are packed closely together, creating the illusion of one long, moving "stream" of wolves. The "stream", suspended above the heads of the viewers, moves toward, and finally crashes forcefully, into a plexiglass wall at the opposite end of the room. The glass panel is only slightly wider than the width of the "stream" of wolves (which appears to be about four to five wolves wide). Their realistic faces are made of plastic, and they each possess marbles for their dark, lifelike eyes. The expressions on the faces of the wolves, as well as the tension in their bodies, contribute further to the illusion that the wolves are running towards something with deliberation; their ears are pressed back and many of the wolves' mouths are open with their teeth bared and tongues hanging out. The compacted, clean arc of wolves (their bodies elongated and stretching to reach the end) approaching the glass panel is juxtaposed with the disorderly wolf bodies that smash into the glass wall and lay beneath it on the floor, limbs and heads twisted (even broken) in unnatural positions, as they begin to pile on top of one another. The juxtaposition of the streamlined running wolves with the broken, crumpled, "lifeless" bodies of the wolves who have met the glass panel head on, is very abrupt.