Clark Griswold, National Lampoon’s master of extravagant holiday displays, has got nothing on Cai Guo-Qiang. To celebrate the Sackler Gallery’s 25th anniversary, the Chinese artist famous for his Olympic pyrotechnics display will ignite a daytime fireworks show that riffs on the Christmas tree lightings taking place around the country. At 3 p.m. Friday in front of the Freer Gallery, visitors will be able to see “Explosion Event,” a sparkling display of light and smoke as the artist lights 2,000 custom-made fireworks attached to a 40-foot pine tree. “This is a dialogue with Mother Nature,” Cai said through a translator at a press presentation on Tuesday. “Now is our chance to play.” Cai will ignite the tree on the north side of the Freer Gallery of Art. Of the three separate explosions that will take place, the first will last only one-and-a-half seconds, Cai told reporters, “So I’ll make sure to do a countdown so you all aren’t chatting and miss the action.” Next, there will be a series of continuous explosions on the tree, “so it will look as if Christmas tree lights are twinkling all over,” he said. In the final explosion, both smoke and twinkling lights will be activated simultaneously. “All of the photographers — you should pay attention to the last explosion,” said Cai. “It’s your last chance at capturing the action. If you do a good job, it will look like a film negative of a Christmas tree at night, except with all of the colors reversed.” He hopes the resulting smoke will create an ethereal tree that keeps its form as it drifts away in the wind. However, the direction of the wind could create a black cloud instead. “You’re probably thinking, have I tried this before?” asked Cai. “No. I’ll be undergoing the same emotions as you are — both excited and anxious.” The smoke is made of charcoal, so it is environmentally-friendly, and the tree will be “very much alive” when the explosion is over. It will be replanted elsewhere, he said. Cai is in town to receive the first State Department Medal of Arts, along with artists Jeff Koons, Carrie May Weems, Shahzia Sikander and Kiki Smith. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will present the artists with their medals on Nov. 30. Friday’s performance is not Cai’s first in Washington — he created a giant tornado for the Kennedy Center, and brought amassive ship to the Sackler in 2005. His daytime fireworks reference the Chinese invention of gunpowder, utilizing types of colored smoke, rather than light, to be visible during the day. The artist is using a different title for his work than the museum’s “Explosion Event.” On his Web site, he calls it “Black Christmas Tree,” an association that the Smithsonian may be avoiding, lest it fuel the annual cable news “War on Christmas” coverage. However, Cai’s work is a commentary on the aesthetics of a Christmas tree, not Christianity. “It happens to be the holiday season, so it makes sense to pick a Christmas tree,” said Cai, “And because there’s the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York, and the tree at Capitol Hill, so I figured, why not add another tree?” Last December, the Style Blog posted footage of one of Cai’s daytime fireworks displays in Doha, Qatar: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/going-out-gurus/post/want-your-christmas-tree-to-really-sparkle-this-year-try-adding-2000-fireworks/2012/11/28/96065e4e-38a9-11e2-a263-f0ebffed2f15_blog.html Article by Maura Judkis for Washington Post