"Explosion" is a term often applied to a variety of things in China: population, business, trends, the Chinese art scene. In his latest exhibition at the UCCA, contemporary artist Zhan Wang transforms China's abstract explosions into a literal one, with a video and sculpture installation that brings viewers into the middle of the carnage created from a detonated boulder.

Zhan Wang videotaped the boulder exploding from six sides, and the videos, projected onto screens the size of a small house, are slowed down so that the flying debris appears to float towards the viewer, as if the rocks were whirling in space. Over 7,000 steel replicas of pieces from the shattered boulder hang at varying levels throughout the exhibit, close enough together that attempting to walk through without bumping into them is an exercise in concentration. The effect is like being onboard the Starship Enterprise when initializing warp speed.

One of China's leading contemporary artists, Zhan Wang has always thought big. He's best known for a series of chrome-plated rock formations modeled after "scholar's rocks," a particular type of rock formation favored in traditional Chinese gardens and parks. In addition to creating large scale works for a variety of international collections, he has also conjured up cityscapes made from strategically placed pieces of kitchen cutlery for his "Urban Landscape" series, and lugged one of his sculptures to the top of Mt. Everest.

Sponsored by Louis Vuitton—part of this exhibit showed alongside LV's "Voyages" at the National Museum of China earlier this year—"My Personal Universe," is at first, much like the sponsor's products, impressive and flashy. Rather than reflecting on Zhan Wang's intended meaning, the viewer is likely to wonder exactly how he pulled it off, a query answered in an accompanying documentary. The deeper implications of "My Personal Universe" will surface after the "wow" factor subsides, when the viewer stops wondering how the explosion happened, and starts thinking about what it might be like to live in the middle of one.

DETAILS

What: Zhan Wang's My Personal Universe

Where: UCCA

When: through Feb. 25

Web: www.ucca.org.cn