On Friday, November 30 at 3 pm, Cai Guo-Qiang created an explosion event in front of the north entrance to the Freer Gallery. Three sets of explosions blew smoke into the air. Spectators eagerly anticipated seeing a smoke-created illusion of a tree. Why would a huge crowd hope to see such an illusion?
With the third explosion, smoke rose upwards, highlighting the beauty of another real tree, and the clouds.
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The Sackler Gallery sponsored the Cai Guo-Qiang explosion event in conjunction with the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies program. The event was part of the Sackler Gallery’s 25th Anniversary celebration. Other events associated with that celebration are the Sackler’s Dunhuang cave visualization and the magnificent Roads of Arabia exhibit.