Rants & Raves

First of all, I tend not to trust artists with only one name; it makes them sound pretentious (Cher, Madonna OMG, I mentioned the sacred singer’s name!, etc.)

A few months ago, I heard about this project being put up in Central Park by Christo and his long-time girlfriend (wife?)/partner Jeanne-Claude. Oversimplified, their projects take huge swaths of fabric and either hang them up or surround something with them. There were the umbrellas in Japan and America in the 80′s, the “Valley Curtain” in Colorado in the 70′s, and the wrapping of Little Bay, Australia in the 60′s, all huge.

Now, I don’t know if the people in the places that were affected by this…art…thought this was a good idea. If those communities agreed with the decision to install these pieces, then I’ll just say that I think the pieces are ugly and leave it at that. But Christo has wanted to do this piece in Central Park for some time, and the powers that be wouldn’t let him. It wasn’t until Michael Bloomberg came into office that Christo had a chance.

So I’m taking advantage of the fact that the sun is (finally) setting later in the day to take a long missed walk through Central Park (I don’t ever walk alone through the park at night) and I am greeted by these, shall I say it? HUGE structures the color of safety vests. I remembered that this project was going on, and was disappointed that I had heard nothing about it recently or I would have voiced my opinion then. All you see as you enter the park from 59th St are these ugly orange structures under which you have to walk. Needless to say, I got out of there as soon as I could. I couldn’t enjoy Central Park for what it is, a gorgeous block of nature that takes you away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Instead, I had to witness these man-made forms that scream “Here I am!!!” And the fabric hadn’t even been released from their “cocoons” (his word, not mine.)

Thank goodness it’s only going to be up for 16 days. I think I can avoid the park for that long.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 8th, 2005 at 7:31 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.