Cai Guo-Qiang: Color Mushroom Cloud 2017 Realized above the former CP-1 site, University of Chicago in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the first controlled self-sustained nuclear chain reaction, December 2, 2017, at 3:25 pm Color comets and PixelBurstâ„¢ Aerial shells 75 meters tall Commissioned by UChicago Arts and the Smart Museum of Art [Ephemeral] Role: Producer & Project Manager, Cai Guo-Qiang Studio Internationally renowned artist Cai Guo-Qiang created this ephemeral, site-specific public artwork at the invitation of the University of Chicago to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. This experiment, conducted at 3:25 p.m. on December 2, 1942, as part of the Manhattan Project, marked the beginning of the Nuclear Age. Exactly 75 years later, at the same moment, Cai Guo-Qiang's Color Mushroom Cloud rose 75 meters into the air above the roof of the Regenstein Library, adjacent to the site of the Chicago Pile-1 experiment led by Enrico Fermi.
