Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang and his recent Arc’teryx-sponsored firework performance, The Rising Dragon, have triggered a barrage of online criticism over environmental concerns.
The Rising Dragon, which seems to be based on his 1989 ‘gunpowder drawing’, Ascending Dragon: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 2, was staged last Friday as a publicity stunt for the Canadian outdoor brand. Typical of Cai’s choreographed, pigment-tinted fireworks, the display took place at the foot of the Himalayas, 5,500 metres above sea level. Videos of the fireworks show a winding belt of coloured smoke stretching all the way up the top of a hill, which reportedly took around ten minutes to fully clear.
A statement published before the performance by Arc’teryx says that the project aimed to ‘show the awe of nature using art as a medium’. While the company claims that the materials Cai used were fully biodegradable and that it had implemented an ecological protection plan – which involved relocating livestock and guiding away wild animals using salt blocks – it nonetheless came under attack after videos were posted online citing the noise and air pollution caused, as well as the fragility of the plateau’s tundra ecology.
The controversy is now under investigation by the local authority of Shigatse. Arc’teryx and Cai have both issued public apologies.
