Sketches
The Umbrellas
I've known Christo and Jeanne-Claude's works since I was a kid(I've even met them when I was a baby, I cried and screamed when Jeanne-Claude tried to hold me), but it was when I was studying fashion in college that I took better interest in their works, because I felt the concept of their works had some things in common with the concept of fashion design.
This quote from their website can probably explain their works a lot better than my poor English writing.
"Christo and Jeanne-Claude's works are entire environments, whether they are urban or rural. The artists temporarily use one part of the environment. In doing so, we see and perceive the whole environment with new eyes and a new consciousness.
The effect is astounding. To be in the presence of one of these artworks is to have your reality rocked. You see things you have never seen before. You also get to see the fabric manifest things that cannot usually be seen, like the wind blowing, or the sun reflecting in ways it had not before.
The effect lasts longer than the actual work of art. Years after every physical trace has been removed and the materials recycled, original visitors can still see and feel them in their minds when they return to the sites of the artworks.
There is no other way to describe that the feeling of that effect other than to say it is magical."
written by Jok Church
Christo and Jeanne-Claude's website
7 comments:
Love these images -- I was very lucky to have been able to see the Central Park installation a few years ago!
fantastic! and i love the part about you meeting them as a baby. years ago i had an art student friend who for halloween dressed all in black with a yellow umbrella glued to her shoulder.she said she had been attacked by the umbrellas installation. maybe now the joke is not so funny- but it still brings back nice memories. brava!! xo
Tara : Thank you, and lucky you!
The Asherette : Haha! I would so wear that costume for Halloween :)
Thank you dear Asherette, x m
their stuff looks amazing especially the wrapped trees!
I love their work dear Michiko, especially the trees. I think I might have seen the umbrellas along the freeway years ago...it was a long time ago though. Thank you for sharing this!
Thank you mothersvea, the wrapped trees look magical, don't they?
Gabbi, I must have seen their works a lot when I was a baby, too bad I don't remember anything but the horror of being held by a total stranger. Poor lady, I feel bad now.
My brother still has a photo of "Sorrounded Islands" with Christo's signature on it though :)
i love christo and jeanne-claude. i sat next to jeanne-claude at a dinner given by a former close friend years ago. she's very funny! their work is magical. truly.
ps fyi, a settlement has been reached between the environmental artist christo and the family of a woman killed when a giant umbrella in a christo display blew onto her last october. The woman, 33-year-old lori rae mathews, and her husband, michael, were visiting the display of 1,760 giant umbrellas on north of Los Angeles. She died instantly when a 500-pound umbrella was uprooted by wind and crushed her against nearby rocks.
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