At 3 pm today, Chinese artist Cai Guo-QiangĀ created an “explosion event” in honor of two birthdays: the Sackler Gallery’s 25th and the State Department’s Art in Embassies Program’s 50th. Both institutions will join forces in the future, enabling artworks to be displayed at the Sackler before they are shipped off to embassies abroad.
In a series of three timed explosions, Cai Guo-Qiang created the illusion of a second tree of smoke drifting from the original pine tree,Ā mimickingĀ the flow of Chinese brush drawings. From prose, poetry. The archived event will be live soon.
Tomorrow, the celebrations continue with a conversation with artist Xu Bing, an Asian art and culture book fair, classical Arabian music, birthday cupcakes, and the much-anticipated opening of theĀ Pure Land digital cave. Learn more on the Sackler at 25 page.
I want to know who paid for this rubbish event on the Mall – a tree explosion on November 30. Any public money used should be repaid from the organizers’ pockets. The event had a sinister artistic meaning, it looked ugly and polluted the air. Besides the mislead spectators had to carry their dirty coats to dry cleaners.