I’m going to New York City in February to see Christo’s latest project, The Gates. 23 miles! 7500 gates!
I’ve seen two previous Christo projects. In 1978 I saw the Wrapped Walkways at Loose Park in Kansas City. When this work was announced, I was skeptical; I thought it sounded like a stupid idea by some nutty artist. Seeing it made me a Christo fan for life. It was exquisite. There was a bit of a problem in that the walkways that were wrapped were popular hiking and running trails. You could still use them while they were wrapped, but they were slippery.
In 1994, I saw The Umbrellas along Highway 5 north of L.A. It was breath-takingly glorious. There were about 1700 saffron umbrellas placed among the mountains. That was a lot of umbrellas! I can’t begin to imagine the scope of 7500 gates.
I read somewhere that the cost of The Gates is $15 million, all raised privately by Christo. The Gates will be in place for only 16 days.
The remarkable documentary team the Maysles Brothers made a series of films about Christo: Christo’s Valley Curtain, Running Fence, Islands, Christo in Paris and Umbrellas. That’s the closest I’ve been to seeing one of his installations (all quite remarkable, though I imagine there’s a definite “you have to be there” quality).
We had to go see an exhibit of Christo’s work when I was in grade school. I’ll just say I don’t really appreciate the “art” of a stick wrapped with gauze and leave it at that. (I did get an “A” on my paper: “Christo the Creepy Crumb” though!)
I’m glad you brought up Rivers & Tides because I almost did. Another terrific movie about a man whose art is painstaking, incredibly beautiful, but shockingly temporal.
I saw Umbrellas on I-5 too. It was neat, but for me kind of overshadowed by the deaths caused setting up his works in the past–though I suppose accidents can happen at any time.
