head on.

(artist: cai guo-qiang)

this art installation has stayed in my mind for a while and continues to inspire me.  i wish i had seen it in person when it was at the guggenheim museum-- all those wolves (fake replicas) running up the circular walkway only to hit a glass wall.  

"i tried to find an animal that represents a collective heroism, an animal that likes company, that lives in a pack. i wanted to portray the universal human tragedy resulting from this blind urge to press forward, the way we try to attain our goals without compromise. this is something that keeps repeating itself all throughout human history. in zen philosophy, there is this idea of tragic beauty based on the notion that most of what happens has no meaning whatsoever.” - cai guo-qiang.