"Your Daytime Fireworks" by Cai Guo-Qiang - This new edition asserts the craft and tactile experience of creation, whether physical or digital. The artist Cai Guo-Qiang, known for his work with gunpowder, will present his NFT project "Your Daytime Fireworks", supported by TRLab, founded by Xin Li-Cohen (Co-Founder and Chairwoman) and Audrey Ou (Co-Founder and CEO). This is a unique interactive artistic project in which collectors transform into artists, learning to “light” their fireworks NFT.

Cai Guo-Qiang is known worldwide for his signature Daytime Firework displays, which use biodegradable colored powders to create vibrant displays with reduced smoke and sulfur emissions. To create virtual equivalents, collectors of Cai’s Firework Packet NFTs must navigate daily factors such as weather conditions, local regulations, and minimum safety distances – just as the artist does – before ‘igniting’ their NFT to reveal a new artwork. Collectors must choose their launch days carefully, drawing from Cai’s guidance as well as the TRLab community of fellow participants.

For the artist and TRLab, launching an immersive interactive project that combines elements of arts education and video gaming could only be made possible with NFTs. By merging NFT utilities and smart contract innovations in a ‘play to learn’ approach that is central to TRLab’s mission, the project became a multi-chapter journey that offers participants a unique level of access and interaction with the artist. 

Cai Guo-Qiang said: “I am constantly in the pursuit of creative breakthroughs. The experience of working with TRLab (twice now) and experimenting with NFTs made me appreciate first-hand the special importance of community engagement in the NFT world, which resonates with diverse aspects of my art methodology: working with different cultural and regional communities around the globes over the years, inviting audiences to participate in the making of my artworks and transforming this process into an integral part of the works, and creating firework events that attract hundreds of millions of viewers who watch on-site and online. Perhaps there are still untapped possibilities yet to be discovered? This is how Your Daytime Fireworks came into being.”