Without Christo
Comments: 9
I’m going to sound like a complete philistine saying this but one thing that struck me years ago was how Japan renders Christo and Jeanne-Claude pretty much obsolete. Not just buildings get wrapped but whole mountainsides (no time to dig up the pictures of mountains right now — the one above was snapped in Mita a week or so ago) and the effect, it seems to me, is the same.
I find it kind of thrilling: art worked into the everyday fabric of walking around! An exhibition on every block. Skyscraperish packages of transformation everywhere, just waiting to be opened.
Not to belittle Christo & Jeanne-Claude, I should mention that a friend of mine saw the Reichstag project years ago and said it was really very moving and impressive. Until I get a chance to see their work in person, I’ll have to be content with the local knock-offs that I come across almost every day.
•••
Posted to General Rants • 2003.05.20 (Tue) • 10:38
Comments
Posted by Christopher Holland 2003.05.20, 12:41
Personally, I would have liked to have seen the Biscayne Bay piece by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Of course, when you wrap an entire island the only way to really appreciate it is from the air I suppose. Still, quite an impressive display I’m sure.
As for your versions of the art: At least you have them. Where we live we are lucky to get the once a year travelling exhibit at the local museum. :)
Posted by frazer 2003.05.20, 18:03
I was in Oberhausen for the “Gasometer” project- back in ‘99. That was truely an impressive display of work. In the same place they had a a side exhibition of the “umbrellas project”- which I have a few samples of the material (yellow and blue), which Christo & Jeanne Claude had used. very cool. heres a link to some photos from the gasometer project. http://www.butterbrot.de/christo/gasometer.htm
Posted by niji 2003.05.20, 18:07
the thing about christo is that i dont think he really ever succeeded in “moving” me. not a single time. this says alot to me. i dont think that i have ever seen other “wrapping” art other than christo, to be honest. but i really wish that others would have gone into it in order to show how poorly christo conceived his projects. the umbrella project was, well, there, existing, but so what. i think so much more could have been realized with this art form in general. whether to point incongruities, or, contrast contrived situations-props versus nature, or, to tell us that we can never improve upon nature, or, to teach us that we can improve upon nature. that is my point, christo’s work teaches us nothing. imho.
Posted by nils 2003.05.20, 19:30
I can’t think of the umbrellas (yellow in California, blue in Japan) without remembering that the project killed one person in each country.
Tejon Pass in Southern California is always windy (it’s a mountain pass!), so it was received locally without too much surprise that a woman was killed by a cute yellow umbrella projectile. In Japan, a worker in a cherry picker (if I recall) accidentally contacted some powerlines when removing an umbrella.
Posted by frazer 2003.05.21, 18:59
…maybe they are just projects for for the sake of art… (this would of course require some tenious bg research)-try here: http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/christo/index.html I am sure that their work does not always ‘move’ people emotionally- but if you imagine the context which in this case is not only the traditional “scale and construction”- but also the ‘juxt-to-position’ with nature. I am not some critic- and I believe everybody is entitled to their own opinions- but to me, the shear/scale of the Gasometer project in such a confined space was amazing. anyway…its not like i think the sun shines from their work- but hey its deffinetly not bad.
Posted by niji 2003.05.21, 20:35
art always says something. erection of beams and stretched canvas can say something. christo’s work just doesnt.
Posted by mike g 2003.05.22, 01:24
There’s a building in downtown Nagano that’s currently wrapped — to make way for a Starbucks. It looks better wrapped.
I’m always amazed at how little the exterior of the building has changed when the wrapping comes off. What exactly are they doing under there? And what is the strong super-glue-like odor eminating from many of the wrapped buildings I pass?
Posted by hollas 2004.02.17, 05:19
Art is not, an ironic twist, a joke, Art is not, protest, political, personal, Art is not, an examination of self, an ego trip, Art is not, examination… period, Art is not, religious, or secular, but properly arouses emotions akin to that with which we do not see, Art is not, an extension of self, a manifestation of self, an expression of self, Art is not, a depiction of life, but a perversion of it, Art is not, life, nor death, but the things in between.
Posted by Mark 2005.02.24, 14:12
Truman was an asshole, but I heard that he once said, “If that is art, I’m a Hottentot! At it’s best, this a a work of political chicanery or a demented window dresser run amuck. Just look ugly and speak in some obscure Eurotrash dialect and watch the New Yorkers bow like a bunch of Muslim pilgrims arriving late for a flogging in Mecca. What a pile of crap.
Why not wrap a landfill in toilet paper and send a turd to everyone in NYC as a momento. And has anyone given a thought to the Hari Krishnas and the wanton use of saffron colored fabric! What if they are forced to change the color of their raiment? How will I know who to kick?
Post a comment:
Send This Story to an Enemy
• • •
