Cai Guo-Qiang made Wolf and Earth in response to the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, a watershed event that signaled the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. While that physical barrier between East and West was dismantled as part of a radical political shift, Cai reminds us that invisible walls are much harder to break down.
The artwork’s central image of a howling wolf is an emblem of self-centeredness overwhelming reason. Cai suggests that collective ideologies must yield more than symbolic gestures, cautioning against humanity’s tendency to repeat the darkest parts of its past.