If you stood by on April 7 as artist Cai Guo-Qiang inaugurated his MOCA show by lighting 40,000 rockets, you heard the bang, felt a wave of heat wash over you, then watched embers fall off the side of the Geffen Contemporary. Then you took in what was left: the charred visage of an “alien god” and a series of crop circles on the side of the building. Cai's gunpowder and rocket art gets discussed in terms of spirituality, the unknown, entropy and fear of the bomb. But seeing that cartoonish alien on the side of the building wipes any high-minded ideas away and leaves you with just the memory of pyromaniacal spectacle. 152 N. Central Ave., Little Tokyo; through July 30. (213) 626-6222, moca.org.

Mondays, Thursdays-Sundays. Starts: April 7. Continues through July 30, 2012

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