Grancey

I'd like to see this, but it's too far for me to travel right now. So, have any of you up in that area been through Central Park recently? And if so, what is your take on the whole thing?

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ngdawg

It has been in the news here for over a week-the finishing touches, the volunteers, how much it covered, etc (I live 40 minutes from Manhattan).
This thing cost 21 million to make. I don't do math well, but I'm thinking that 21 mil could have been distributed in much more humanitarian ways than hanging orange sheets through 26 miles of park. Hope the homeless sleeping under them enjoy the show.

ObieX

I hear it looks like a construction site. :P

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brianna

I saw them last weekend and it is a pretty impressive display. I'd like to go to the met and see the whole thing from the roof garden because I think it's most impressive the more flags you can see at once. walking through them while interesting just doesn't seem like the ideal perspective. For those of you just looking at pictures I think most of the pictures show the flags as more reddish orange than they are in person -- i'm also not sure that "saffron" is an accurate description -- it's the orange of california poppies.

I don't think that you can make the argument that money invested in art (whether or not you think it's GOOD art) is wasted (esp in this case when the artist self funded the project). Taken to its logical conclusion this argument would lead to a world with no art museums, nothing but utilitarian buildings, no Shakespeare, no Picasso, potentially no parks -- I think everyone's quality of life would be much worse in such a world.

Halx

It's estimated that the exhibit will bring about billions in tourism revenue during it's stay, so I wouldn't get too hard on it.

I hope to see it next week with a friend.

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billege

"billions" in tourist revenue?

That many people are going to travel to NYC for orange sheets? I will be damned.

I'd like to hear what you think of experiancing it. Honestly, I've seen quite a few pics of it, and done the whole "slideshow virtual tour" bit, but it's lost on me. Perhaps you can explain some sense of it. Right now, I really don't get it.

I have nothing against it, nor any psuedo intellectual gripe, I'm open to it meaning somthing. Right now I'm just thinking, "okay, orange sheets, over a loooong walkway."

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Jesus Pimp

Billege, you'd be surprised how many people go through NYC in one day. I don't think they would travel to NYC just for orange sheets. They most likely will stumble upon it going through central park or seeing it on the news or reading it in the newspaper. I wouldn't look too deep into these sheets either. The original artists said the sheets don't mean anything but were intended to attract people's attention and bring more people to central park especially in dreary February.

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Cynthetiq

The Gates via Satellite

Click here to view full image (2479 kb)



Billge, the artist has also done things like dying an iceburg red, having red material over rolling hills in California. Personally I don't see it as art, but others seem to.

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Paradise Lost

Top Ten Questions People Asked About the Gates:
10.) Why?
7.) Will it help my cellphone reception?

The money wasn't 'wasted' per se, I believe it was a privately funded operation, so
it's not the city's money. I do agree that it could have went elsewhere, but there
is also Halx's point that it could bring in much money for tourism.
I know if I was in NYC for a day I would go just to check it out.

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vermin

I hadn't heard of or seen anything about the gates until seeing this thread. Hard to see the sheets in the photo.
I looked at the large size satellite photo. Wow, that's a big fuckin' park. I've never been to New York and on maps it doesn't really look that big. The baseball diamonds really give it a sense of scale. With property value as high as it is there, I'm suprised an area that size has remained park.

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Frowning Budah

I have seen some of their other works. Impressive, but 21 million to do 26 miles? Almost a million dollars a mile to hang sheets. Somebody got ripped off.

Jesus Pimp

I went to check out the gates yesterday with my sister. We weren't impressed at all. If you want to see some impressive art go to the Whitney Museum and check out the Tim Hawkinson exhibition.

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snowy

The artists, Christo and his wife Jeanne-Claude, paid for the installation themselves. They've done other works similar to this, like wrapping the Reichstag in Berlin and the Pont Neuf in Paris in fabric.

I think it's rather silly but I think Christo has made a good point in various interviews: this is art for art's sake, nothing more. Don't expect to get any deeper meaning out of the Gates--there is none.

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Paq

OHHHHH
these are the two who did the reichstag..that explains a lot.

it is definitely nothing more than art for art's sake, then. i didn't really connect the name to their other pieces

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streak_56

I think it looks interesting... I've only seen pictures on the news, but I really like it.

KungFuGuy

yea christo and jean-claude paid for it themselves. there was an article today in the daily news saying that they originated the idea back in the '80s and have been going trhough red tape on top of red tape to actually get it up.

i went to see them. it was pretty cool. i've been noticing to dominant views.

1)aahhhhh wow. so artistic

and

2) wtf. its orange fabric.

Cycler

Wish I could go looks awsome in the coverage I have seen.

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Blackthorn

There was a story on CNN-HN last night about the gates. Halx is right about the economic impact of these things. There are vendors around sellign gate watches, scarves, socks and swatches. It's crazy the amount of traffic that it seems this is generating in the park. Also...the $21 mil was privately funded.

Is it art? I don't get much from contemporary art so I'm not the best judge. It looks like a bunch of water proof tarps strung from posts to me. But I also couldn't see the art in the one room (I'd guess 50' x 100') exhibit at the top of the Guggenheim that consisted of a coat hanging on a stainless steel coat rack. Soooo...like I said I may not be the best judge of these sort of things. It's created a stir and people are going to see it and dropping serious cash in the city. No harm no foul if you ask me.

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brianna

another exciting new york art experience *grin* http://www.futurebird.com/buckets/

chickentribs

If you can accept an idea as art, as well as paintings and sculptures, than it would be hard to argue against Christo's work. I respect that he has created a system that allows him to self-finance his visions so he does what he wants no matter how absurd it may seem to others. (He sells his original drawings and blueprints of his installations to collectors to finance his next projects...)

The end result is exactly what happens here, sustained debate as to what is art, the value of art to society, and what nutbag would call that color "saffron"?! We have lost the Pollacks, Warhols, Maplethorpes, and this weekend we lost Hunter S. Thompson. We need these people who throw things against the walls to make noise, there are very few left it seems.

Don't underestimate the value of an original idea - most of us will never be lucky enough to have one, let alone the balls to do something about it.

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Supple Cow

I finally saw them yesterday and I loved them. They're a very happy orange and absolutely brilliant in the sunlight. Walking through them reminded me of the palace in the movie "Hero" with all the green fabric hanging from the ceiling. It was like being part of an enormous royal court... outdoors. I'm no theorist when it comes to art, but I appreciate "The Gates" just as I do everything else that inspires emotion.

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NeoRete

I visited the gates during President's day weekend and found myself more awed by amount of vistors to the park during wintertime than anything else. That isn't to say that I don't think the gates have artistic merit, but personally I found that the engineering and logistics of creating and placing 7500 gates overwhelmed the creative sense of the project.

Today will be the last day before the gates will be taken down. For those of you who missed it, there are many photos at http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/gates.html

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minyn

art for art's sake - its a hard and commonly deemed 'empty thought' but its far from that. its the ability to make the imagination come alive without the necessity of verbal justification. they are meant to be enjlyed just for no other reason then something presented to the public that may make you smile and think "wow, these are _____"

but thats just me.

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Cynthetiq

Christo's Maybach and of course the gates....

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mrklixx

I wonder if anyone is taking bets on how long it will be before they are vanalized?

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Cynthetiq

it was vandalized... crashed into... peed on by dogs...

lots of things... the local NYC blogs have been keeping up with all the sordid minute details...

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mrklixx

LOL how long did it actually remain "pure"?

I saw a piece on CBS Sunday Morning right around when it was unveiled, and Christo was talking about "performance art" aspect about this (as well as their other 'works') piece, in that how people reacted to it was all part of the "art". So I was wondering if someone vandalized it, if it would not be cleaned up/repaired because the vandalization is a reaction and (according to Christo) is part of the "art".

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Grancey

http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/03/news...ates/index.htm

NEW YORK (CNN) - Christo and Jeanne-Claude's free art display "The Gates" far surpassed expectations, attracting an estimated 4 million visitors to Central Park and generating $254 million for New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced Wednesday.

Flanked by small business owners and local sales people who profited during the 16-day exhibition, Bloomberg touted the economic impact at Mickey Mantle's restaurant on Central Park South, one of the many whose business skyrocketed.

"The Gates may have been saffron," Bloomberg said, "but to a lot of New Yorkers, they really meant green."

More than 7,500 of the 16-foot-high gates were spread out over 23 miles of the park's paved paths.

February is a normally sluggish time for tourism in the city, but Bloomberg credited The Gates with drawing an unprecedented 1.5 million out-of-towners, including 300,000 from overseas.

He predicted the city would reel in $8 million in tax revenue "at virtually no cost" to the city.

The $21 million temporary work of art was funded by its creators, who donated $3 million to the Central Park Conservancy.

Midtown hotels had an 87 percent occupancy rate, about 10 percentage points higher than normal, while restaurants in the park's vicinity saw their business double on weekdays, and in some cases triple on the three weekends The Gates were up.

Broadway theater ticket sales increased by 17 percent, and museums saw jumps in attendance.

Even pushcart operators who normally make $100 on a cold February day earned as much as $1,000 a day during the saffron spectacle.

But, Bloomberg said, "the publicity was the real economic benefit. The Gates showed the world that New York is safe, open to all, and remains the cultural capital of the world."

The Gates were up when the International Olympic Committee visited to consider the city's bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Workers began taking down The Gates Monday, but will need another two weeks to remove all the steel frames and saffron curtains.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude plan to recycle the materials, including 5,290 tons of steel, about two-thirds the amount used to build Paris' Eiffel Tower.

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omega2K4

Bahahahahahahah! That expression on Danza's face is hilarious.

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Sp0rAdiC

I visited last week, went down on the train for the day. I was of the mindset "they're just orange sheets, whoop-dee-do" But when I got there and got to walk around the park, it was really interesting. I tried to imagine central park without them, and it would just be so bland this time of year. I loved the contrast they added. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see them after a recent snowfall, so the ground was patched with dead grass and dirt. It was still an impressive sight though.

tres

I'm tending to agree with you. I'm not "anti art" or anything..I'm cultured... but..I just don't see the apeal to orange soccer goals with orange curtains hanging from them....

nofnway

I've never been into Christo's projects but you have to credit him for thinking on a grand scale.

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