I Don't Like the Gates

I just saw this image of Christo's Gates at Gothamist. While I don't think it is right to vandalize another person's work, once it has been vandalized and documented for all to see, I don't see a problem discussing said vandalism.

I don't like Christo's work at all. You could say I don't get it. Not in the least. I didn't like it when he spread his sheets in the desert, I didn't like it when he covered those bridges. Nothing. Ugh. But I will give him credit in convincing large municipalities into covering their shit up in sheets. And I will give him credit in creating a media frenzy over his sheets.

I guess if the attention he brings to the art world with his [stupid] sheets, it's a good thing for the art world in general. But that isn't going to stop me from not liking his work.

I wonder if the poles and the sheets have been treated, with Scotchguard^TM or something. They had to have forseen that the gates would be tagged and/or vandalized. It was inevitable.

The Gates from space.

Comments

[Scott]

Christo has said about the Gates that there is nothing to 'get.' It just is. It is an excercise in whimsy, and the pictures really don't do it any justice.

When you're in the Park with the Gates blowing, the stark trees in the background, and the clear blue sky above it is something else.

Though, I can see how people wouldn't like it. Is it art? I don't know. Do I like it? Yes, but I think I like the fact that something like this can be done more than I actually like the Gates.

But that's just me. :)

[browneye]

i agree with you. i suppose it looks pretty enough with the wind blowing, etc...but i don't see what the hubb bubb is all about.

[acm]

I think it's hard not to have hubub when you have something this intrusive into such a major site in such a major city. It's a huge project, and unavoidable transformation of the park with these huge splashes of color in a wintry scene. You can't miss it from blocks away.

Like much of art, the "magic" is merely in the meeting of things familiar and unfamiliar -- strange colors used by an Impressionist to paint a human face or a landscape; wild tunnels of bright orange grafted onto familiar byways of a "natural" landscaped park. You see it differently or you don't, you enjoy it or you don't, maybe you think about it. You've had the art experience, and nothing more is required of you.

[dragonballyee]

Thank GOD nothing more is required of me. Oh wait there is, trying to avoid all of the photos and media coverage of these things.