The Gates Open

One by one, on a sunny Saturday morning in winter, 7,500 huge ribbons of saffron-colored fabric were released from their bonds and turned New York’s Central Park into a blaze of color, courtesy of the installation artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. “Like all projects by this duo, ‘The Gates’ is as much a public happening as it is a vast environmental sculpture and a feat of engineering… The gates need to be – they are conceived to be – experienced on the ground, at eye level, where, as you move through the park, they crisscross and double up, rising over hills, blocking your view of everything except sky, then passing underfoot, through an underpass, or suddenly appearing through a copse of trees, their fabric fluttering in the corner of your eye.”