The Gates – Amazing Idea… But Up Close?

The Central Park “Gates” have been a huge hit. “Such a mass affirmation of the imagination was, in my view, a grand pursuit, an affirmation capable of washing away the psychic residue of 9/11 and the memory of those flaming orange chrysanthemums of fire that appalled and humbled us all. But the physical incarnation of the idea — The Gates themselves — were another matter. Approaching Central Park, one was immediately struck by an obvious truth: As a sculptural installation in the landscape, it didn’t work.”