A fireworks show staged by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang at the base of the Himalayas in Tibet has led to stinging criticism online. Amid the outcry, both the artist and Arc’teryx, the outdoor apparel brand that sponsored the project, issued apologies.
The Rising Dragon, a piece related to Cai’s 1989 gunpowder drawing Ascending Dragon: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 2, featured fireworks that emitted colored smoke in dramatic patterns on a plateau in Shigatse, a city in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. The performance was staged at an elevation some 18,000 feet above sea level.
Criticism mounted after pictures and video made their way online and prompted questions about environmental concerns raised by the artwork, leading Chinese authorities to address the matter. “The Shigatse party committee and government take the matter seriously and have set up an investigation team to send to the site immediately to investigate,” the city’s local communist party committee said in a statement, according to a report by CNN.
Arc’teryx, a sportwear company started in Canada and held under Chinese ownership since a sale in 2019, issued an apology on Instagram reading: “This event was in direct opposition to our commitment to outdoor spaces, who we are, and who we want to be for our people and our community. We are deeply disappointed that this happened and apologize, full stop.”
For his part, Cai, the artist, issued a statement reading: “My studio and I attach great importance to this and humbly accept all criticism of our artistic creation on the plateau with a modest heart and sincerely thank you for your concern and reminders.”
Cai’s work has been the subject of controversy before, most recently when reports of injuries and complaints of noise and debris followed a performance of his in Los Angeles as part of last year’s Getty-affiliated Pacific Standard Time initiative. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, “residents in the surrounding South L.A. neighborhood said they thought bombs were exploding, and the smoke that wafted into their streets unsettled them, forcing some to close windows and leading others to believe that they were in the midst of an emergency.”
In that same article, Cai said “there were no malfunctions with the fireworks” but also that he was “deeply uneasy and apologetic” about the repercussions of his work.
