Amid the “holy mountains” of Mount Everest, Arc’teryx and acclaimed Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang staged a fireworks display that sought to honor Mother Nature and communicate with the wider universe. But the spectacle quickly backfired, quickly unraveling into a public relations crisis for both Cai and the Anta-owned outdoor brand.

To bring to life a work initially conceived more than 35 years ago, the 67-year-old Cai — known for works that use gunpowder and fireworks to explore themes such as spirituality, his Chinese identity and creative destruction — spent almost a week in the small Tibetan village of Relong, which is a part of a region dubbed the “hometown of Mount Everest.”

It was the first time the artist worked with mountainous terrain for this installation, which went up t

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