Black Christmas Tree

On Friday, the Sackler Gallery, together with the State Department, presented Cai Guo-Qiang's Black Christmas Tree: Explosion Event for Washington, DC.  Cai was one of the artists to receive the Medal of Art from the State department and was part of the panel discussion that I posted about here. Cai's medium of choice is gunpowder and he talked a little about Black Christmas Tree during the panel discussion. The tree was a celebration of the Art in Embassies' 50th anniversary and the Sackler's 25th anniversary. His goal was to create an inverted Christmas tree that would explode in darkness, rather than in light, resembling a film negative of a traditional tree lighting ceremony. The second part of the project was the virtual, or ethereal tree that would emerge from the gunpowder smoke and  exist in all four dimensions.  The black smoke was also meant to reference Chinese brush painting, and for the virtual tree to be a painting in the air.  At the panel discussion Cai made a joke about how hard it was to get the permits to explode something on The National Mall. I have to say,  he was very charming and seemed like a genuinely happy and humble guy.

Artist sketch. Courtesy of Freer and Sackler Galleries' website

Unfortunately, I was stuck at work, but the Sackler had a live stream of the event so Margaret and I were able to watch it from the gallery and Ian went in person to take a video for me to post on the blog! Below are some screen shots I took from the live stream and Ian's video.

pre-explosion

Cai, the artist, in the red scarf

Those grey orbs that look like Christmas ornaments are the balls of gunpowder

The final (and largest!) explosion.

The "virtual" smoke tree beginning to appear

In his opening remarks, Cai said he was hoping for a larger tree and more wind. So I think the final product wasn't quite what he expected.  I can't imagine the pressure he must feel right before he presents one of his works, especially those that take place outdoors. There are so many variables and expectations and he only gets one shot at it!  Here's Ian's raw footage from the event:

I highly recommend watching this video of Cai's project Sky Ladder at the Museum of Contemporary Art  in Los Angeles to get a better sense of his practice: