My little road trip and treasured holiday family time nearly left me for dead, but I'm all the better for it.
This Friday, as in tomorrow, we are having another installation party at the beloved Little Bean.
Along the installation theme... Tuesday I was at a friends house and noticed a picture with her at The Gates installation in Central Park by Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
I saw photographs and renderings of the The Gates at the Austin Museum of Art in 2006. Even via photographs I was taken by the beauty of the massive installation in a natural setting and the way it seemed to bring new life and appreciation for Central Park. Christo and the late Jeanne-Claude have done many installations. The scale of their work is daunting and added to that is the remarkable fact that they do not accept donations or sponsorship but pay for the works through the sales of their original works of art. The installations only last around two weeks and the land is left as they found it and the installation materials are donated or recycled.
Although their work is visually impressive and often controversial as a result of its scale, the artists have repeatedly denied that their projects contain any deeper meaning than their immediate aesthetic. The purpose of their art, they contend, is simply to create works of art or joy and beauty and to create new ways of seeing familiar landscapes. Art critic David Bourdon has described Christo's wrappings as a "revelation through concealment."To his critics Christo replies, "I am an artist, and I have to have courage ... Do you know that I don't have any artworks that exist? They all go away when they're finished. Only the preparatory drawings, and collages are left, giving my works an almost legendary character. I think it takes much greater courage to create things to be gone than to create things that will remain."
Here are a few of my favorites...
3,100 Umberllas in Japan and California
Indoor installation of 13,000 oil barrels in Germany
Miami 11 islands wrapped
This is the Over the River Project which is still progress. I plan on seeing this one in person.
see...bigger is better--a maxim that is especially comforting following the holidays
quote via wikipedia
