Christo
April 21st 2006 10:06
Intellectual, bizarre and beautiful in a funny way. Yep, were talking modern art. It gets weirder every year. Sometimes its really tempting to just yell out, ‘there’s no way that that’s art!” But those moments are really important-because only then do old traditions get challenged. New conventions are usually born amidst outrage. Christo’s work is a perfect example of this. Every time I see his work I’m on the brink of cringing-but he’s also one of my favourite artists. Why? Because it takes guts to do something so radically different.
Let’s get one thing straight. Christo’s art is weird, and there’s no way we’d consider his work art if we just randomly walked passed one of them. The thing is Christo dosen’t use paintbrushes-he quite literally wraps stuff up. Okay, I can hear you guys going ‘huh?’ but I’m serious. He takes buildings or parks and wraps them up with material.
In 1995 Christo wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin. He had to write letters to all 662 delegates to get the project to go through. But you have to admit that the end result is pretty impresive. More than 100,000 square meters of fireproof polypropylene fabric and 15 km of rope were needed to get the job done.
Only last year Christo completed ‘the gates’ in central park, New York. It took him about 30 years to get permission to go ahead with the project. 7,503 gates made of saffron-yellow material were placed on paths in Central Park. They were five metres high and had a combined length of 37 km. That, to say the least, is a lot of material!
He tried to wrap the Harbour Bridge and Opera house in Sydney-but unfortunally he didn’t get council approval for the project. A huge pity, imagine how different Sydney would look if the harbour bridge was covered in material!
So how the hell is Christo’s work art? Well according to Christo he’s work dosen’t have any hidden meanings. He maintains that his only aim is to make the world a more beautiful place. Which is fair enough-arts first job is to be beautiful. Then again other’s haven’t left it at that, David Bourdon has called Christo's wrappings a "revelation through concealing." I tend to agree with Bourdon, every time I see one of Christo’s works I can’t help but think how much art has changed. Plus, by wrapping up buildings etc, he makes us appreciate the beauty of landmarks that we wouldn’t take notice of on a day to day basis.
So art or not? What do you guys think?
(the info for this post was taken from the site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christo)
Let’s get one thing straight. Christo’s art is weird, and there’s no way we’d consider his work art if we just randomly walked passed one of them. The thing is Christo dosen’t use paintbrushes-he quite literally wraps stuff up. Okay, I can hear you guys going ‘huh?’ but I’m serious. He takes buildings or parks and wraps them up with material.
He tried to wrap the Harbour Bridge and Opera house in Sydney-but unfortunally he didn’t get council approval for the project. A huge pity, imagine how different Sydney would look if the harbour bridge was covered in material!
So how the hell is Christo’s work art? Well according to Christo he’s work dosen’t have any hidden meanings. He maintains that his only aim is to make the world a more beautiful place. Which is fair enough-arts first job is to be beautiful. Then again other’s haven’t left it at that, David Bourdon has called Christo's wrappings a "revelation through concealing." I tend to agree with Bourdon, every time I see one of Christo’s works I can’t help but think how much art has changed. Plus, by wrapping up buildings etc, he makes us appreciate the beauty of landmarks that we wouldn’t take notice of on a day to day basis.
So art or not? What do you guys think?
(the info for this post was taken from the site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christo)
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David Jobling
Comment by Glen
Reggae
Glen
This Is Reggae
Travel Australia
Comment by Scott
i dont think it should be done more often then that though.
But that idea is better then alot of the modern art around
Scott
Punk Blog
Comment by Matt
Matt
SydneyDiary
Comment by Sara
I don't know Scott, i mean Christo's been wrapping stuff up for a few years now, and its still novel. But yeah, i totally see what you mean.
Matt i think having sydney harbour bright pink is a fantastic idea. Ahhh, if only in dreams.
Comment by Anonymous