They pull you in.

The Gates.

Very funny, too: Christo & Jeanne-Claude Most Common Errors.

For example:

Christo was born in Bulgaria NOT IN SEVEN OTHER COUNTRIES

The Game of Errors: There are six errors in the following published short sentence.

"Christo wrapped some islands in Florida, off the coast of Miami in Key Biscayne with pink plastic."

    •     1.-2. Christo and Jeanne-Claude never wrapped any Islands. They surrounded the islands. Most journalists do not understand the difference between wrapping and surrounding even though they should know that the United Kingdom is surrounded by water, it is not wrapped in water.
    •     3. There were eleven islands surrounded, but because in two occasions 2 islands were surrounded together, there was a total of nine configurations on a span of seven miles.
    •     4. Not off the coast. Off the coast would be in the Atlantic Ocean, east of Miami Beach.
    •     5. It was in Biscayne Bay in the heart of the city of Miami, between Miami City and Miami Beach. Key Biscayne is miles away from there.
    •     6. Not plastic - FABRIC, woven polypropylene is a man-made fiber, and is woven. Plastic usually refers to a film, not woven. For instance, women who wear nylon stockings are not wearing plastic stockings.

What I love about them (as projected in their website) is the tone of humor, commonsense exasperation and their willingness, nay, pleasure, in dealing with their "art" factually, directly and simply. No gushing talk from them of "flow" etc etc...

•••

Contra, for example, Andy Goldsworthy.

I just saw a DVD about him and starring him (as much or than his works) titled Rivers & Tides. And I like his work -- I had never seen it before -- but as I was watching this DVD I kept thinking "Fewer words and more information."

Not everyone agrees:

As the film's images accumulate, the movie becomes a sustained and ultimately refreshing meditation on surrender to the idea of temporality. So much art is an egotistical attempt to leave behind something that will be contemplated for generations and theoretically for eternity. If Mr. Goldsworthy's humility in the face of change reminds us that all is vanity, his playfulness also reminds us that a fervent engagement in the moment is in its own way infinite.

If there were ever an example of the adage that artists should be silent about their own work, then this one is it. Goldsworthy's art is sweet and charming, mostly avoiding the sentimental and saccharine, but his attempts to explain it are boring and moralizing and pretentious.

Watch the DVD with the sound off. You won't miss anything as the voice-over contains little of value.

 

 

Comments

[Tommer Peterson]

Lately I'm thinking that Goldsworthy's work is the kind of like the "Lion King" of the visual art world. Enjoyable, but nothing much to take away.

[David Sucher]

I haven't seen the "Lion King" either; but Goldsworthy seems like the sort of guy who makes the sixties look bad.