Christo Event

I am definitely going to see it. I hope it isn't freezing this week.

Someone I know really well is going to NY next week and that is their main reason for going. Sounds really interesting.

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This entire self-serving project is deplorable.


p.s. I live one block from Central Park, so I should know.

Updated On: 2/11/05 at 08:00 PM

I say that because his projects are done in order that he can then sell postcards, photographs, media rights, etc., to his "art." This "art" is done solely for the media it creates and to line his own personal coffers.

I also object to masking a beautiful work of art in its own right, Central Park, with aveneues of industrial orange beams from which hang industrial oranage curtains.

I truly object to this entire project.

All those "volunteers" who came to NYC to help erect this project (to use a polite term) if they truly wanted to contribute their time should have done so by cleaning Central Park, or painting and upkeeping a housing project in their own home town, or working a homless shelter somewhere, or helping people with Aids.

Now, I off to hear Meagan Mullaly at Jazz at Lincoln Center, which offers a view of this "self-serving...deplorable" project from the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.

I still dislike it!

All those "volunteers" who came to NYC to help erect this project (to use a polite term) if they truly wanted to contribute their time should have done so by cleaning Central Park, or painting and upkeeping a housing project in their own home town, or working a homless shelter somewhere, or helping people with Aids.

Yes, and everyone who works in Theatre should just start volunteering at a shelter, people who build sets should stop and start building homes for the homeless, producers should give all that money used to produce anything artistic to the sick, stop making art until the world can feed all of it's citizens...

My God, Jose, that is the most asinine thing you have ever said! It is the argument that people use to stop federal funding of the arts. So you don't like what he does. I don't like what A. L. Webber does, but I would never suggest he stop doing it to feed the poor. It is not as if Christo is chopping down the trees in Central Park, he is installing a TEMPORARY exhibit to enhance (as he sees it) the terrain and cause people who walk by there everyday take a new look at it in a different way. To suggest that there are better ways to spend his time, well, the next time you want to go see a show...go to a shelter or a hospital and change the bed pans. You need to stop supporting anything artistic. Please.

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I think there are two sides (at least) to every story. Do I think the GATES exhibit is art? Do I think it "enhances" the park? Do I think there are reprecussions? Maybe yes, maybe no. The following except from a local paper raises and answers some questions:

The total cost of the project, including cleaning up afterwards, has been estimated at 21 million dollars -- a price tag that will be met entirely by the artists.

They intend to raise the money through the sale of preparatory drawings by Christo and sketches of prior projects.

"We'll sell all that we have, except our son," Jeanne-Claude said.

As with all their previous projects, viewing "The Gates" will require no ticket or admission price.

The two-week event is the result of 26 years of preparations, developments, meetings, and hopes often disappointed, such as in 1981 when the city government refused a license to proceed.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg finally gave the go ahead in 2003.

With no tab to pick up, the city is hoping the project will produce an off-season cash windfall.

In a bid to attract guests during what is normally a slow month for the tourist trade, hotels like the Mandarin Oriental are offering special "Gates" packages, placing binoculars in all rooms with a view over Central Park.

Restaurants, meanwhile, are adjusting their menus by adding dishes inspired by the project such as shrimps and scallops in saffron sauce.

Some 200,000 people are expected to visit New York for the express purpose of viewing the installation and, like all passers-by, will receive remembrances from a million samples of saffron distributed at the site.

Not everyone is happy with the project however.

The New York branch of the Sierra Club environmental group demanded without success that the city conduct an impact study, voicing concerns about the effect the project will have on the 7,000 birds in the park.

The city is looking at a tremendous (potential) gain in revenue from this art (stunt) and it's only for two weeks. Are they doing irreperable harm? I don't think so and I think ultimately the final result will outweigh the negative impact. This city is never not in need of a financial boost.

As for the artists lining their pockets; while that may be true, they are also not "costing" the city money to do their work, and that is something to take under consideration.

Updated On: 2/12/05 at 10:24 AM

Jose, you are still not addressing the issue that you raised that since YOU don't think it's art the money should not be spent on the project but on the homeless and clean up. Any person who produces a Broadway show wants to "line his pockets". Why am I having the urge to put on Sunday in the Park with George? In fact, I think I will do just that, and since I will not be able to make it to NYC to experience this fun and I believe beautiful exhibit, I will have to content myself with a postcard. I hope that does not offend you. Thanks for the offer of lunch, but I'll have to take a rain check.

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It's supposed to be the colors of sunrise - which doesn't translate in the pics I've seen - but they're only pics. They do seem to match Jeanne-Claude's hair, though.

I saw the park from Broadway as I walked to the office a short while ago.

Gates is an eyesore.

Boo for Bloomberg for being the first mayor to supporting this sham in the name of art. This entire project had been refused by the City since 1979.

I loved reading today how Christo became flustered and frustrated during the Q&A when meeting the media yesterday to announce the unfurling.

Methinks even he knows scrutiny will reveal that he's wearing no clothes.

Fly East Sueleen, lunch is on me.

I don't understand the hostility to Christo making money.

Many, many many of the singers, dancers, painters, sculptors, playwrights, composers, actors, ceramicists, choreographers and other artists that I have known have sought to support themselves financially through their artistic endeavors. The notion that this somehow "proves" that their art is invalid is ludicrous.

The argument that the Gates project "robs Central Park of it's beauty" is subjective and cannot be truly proved or disproved. If you don't like installation art, I imagine it would be distracting to see the park covered with these gates. Still, with 850 acres of park, I think the anti-Gates folks can still find a few spots of unspoiled refuge.

While I actually am a fan of Christo's work, I find this project, like the umbrellas, less successful than I'd hoped. Still, I've only seen them from above; I'm walking my dogs up there during the week; perhaps they have more impact when you're "inside"

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Terribly diasapointed to hear this is not a success. One of my MD's is travelling to N.Y. Esp to see this too. ( I just happened to pick this time to be in so no skin off my nose either way)

I thought that the wrapped Reichstag had such visceral aesthetic and political and emotional impact--I was really blown away by that. The gates feel so neutered by acommodation and compromise that they come off merely pretty. I wish he had wrapped the Statue of Liberty, or the Washington Monument. (Yeah, this administration would understand and support that....) Even so--his ability to make people think about and see in a new way places/things that they take for granted is great and valuable, IMHO.

To a great extent with public art, perception is reality; masses of people are LOVING this installation. The crowds in and around the park yesterday were positively giddy. Giddy about Central Park in the dead heart of February? That's a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.

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