It's only 16 Days.
And this is what I actually have to say about The Gates by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. On my way to Central Park, I was incredibly excited. In Christo's drawings, the gates looked absolutely magnificent, as the fabric was billowing between the posts, reflecting off water in a pond. However, upon arrival, I (along with everyone else I have talked to about the gates) was incredibly disappointed. The effect of the bright orange is that in the only place in New York City where one can forget about monumental civilization and the construction work that saturates the entire city, one is now barraged with the same bright color all over so much of the rest of the city. Central Park, despite what many would have thought, is no longer a unique entity. It is scarred.
My experience at the gates was awful. Several small teams of people pulled open the cocoon that held the fabric stretched between the poles, and after each one, for example, in one group, someone would comment "good pull," to the person who had just released the fabric. One group I came across opening up the cocoons would do a count after every opening, so that no one got to open more of the gates than anyone else did - I saw them getting fairly angry at each other over it.
There was merchandise for sale - sweaters, caps, t-shirts, mugs. A girl in my Writing the Essay class was caught in The Met, which she said was a zoo of people running around, being incredibly rude to rush to the roof of the building which overlooks Central Park. People talked about the meaning of the gates, and the importantce, and, "When did you discover Christo and Jeanne-Claude?" "Oh, I heard about them when they wrapped some islands in pink fabric."
Regardless of how they look in illustrations, descriptions, and photographs, the gates really are not aesthetically pleasing, and in no way feel monumental or striking in any way. The feel like litter, like someone inadvertantly had them trailing out of their pockets on a walk through Central Park.
I think what seems so beautiful about Christo and Jeanne-Claude's work is the idea of it's existence - that somewhere, someone surrounded (not wrapped) islands with bright pink fabric, or built a huge wall of oil barrels, or wrapped the Reichstag in fabric. I'd be interested to see if Germans had the same reaction, granted, however, that the Reichstag has much more meaning for them than Central Park does for the city of New York.
And, of course, no one in the media is willing to step out and admit that The Gates really are not pleasant, and have nothing other than a nauseating effect. I have not met a single student yet who was pleasantly surprised or profoundly affected or even interested-in-a-positive-way in The Gates.
And if you say that perhaps this dispute is what Christo and Jeanne-Claude might have intended, I will right them a letter tell them so, and they will go to your house and be very angry at you for some time.
It feels like an abuse of democracy, as well, that the wealthy and well-connected have the ability to severaly mar one of the nation's most prominent landmarks.
Meh.
My experience at the gates was awful. Several small teams of people pulled open the cocoon that held the fabric stretched between the poles, and after each one, for example, in one group, someone would comment "good pull," to the person who had just released the fabric. One group I came across opening up the cocoons would do a count after every opening, so that no one got to open more of the gates than anyone else did - I saw them getting fairly angry at each other over it.
There was merchandise for sale - sweaters, caps, t-shirts, mugs. A girl in my Writing the Essay class was caught in The Met, which she said was a zoo of people running around, being incredibly rude to rush to the roof of the building which overlooks Central Park. People talked about the meaning of the gates, and the importantce, and, "When did you discover Christo and Jeanne-Claude?" "Oh, I heard about them when they wrapped some islands in pink fabric."
Regardless of how they look in illustrations, descriptions, and photographs, the gates really are not aesthetically pleasing, and in no way feel monumental or striking in any way. The feel like litter, like someone inadvertantly had them trailing out of their pockets on a walk through Central Park.
I think what seems so beautiful about Christo and Jeanne-Claude's work is the idea of it's existence - that somewhere, someone surrounded (not wrapped) islands with bright pink fabric, or built a huge wall of oil barrels, or wrapped the Reichstag in fabric. I'd be interested to see if Germans had the same reaction, granted, however, that the Reichstag has much more meaning for them than Central Park does for the city of New York.
And, of course, no one in the media is willing to step out and admit that The Gates really are not pleasant, and have nothing other than a nauseating effect. I have not met a single student yet who was pleasantly surprised or profoundly affected or even interested-in-a-positive-way in The Gates.
And if you say that perhaps this dispute is what Christo and Jeanne-Claude might have intended, I will right them a letter tell them so, and they will go to your house and be very angry at you for some time.
It feels like an abuse of democracy, as well, that the wealthy and well-connected have the ability to severaly mar one of the nation's most prominent landmarks.
Meh.