The dismantling of the 7,500 “Gates” in Central Park begins today. Taking them down “will be easier than the installation because there will not be any need to be careful. The 5,290 tons of steel will be melted down and recycled – The aluminum is going to become cans of soda and the fabric will be shredded and turned into carpet padding. Then all that will be left of “The Gates” will be the memories, and the T-shirts, coffee mugs, posters, watches and baseball caps. There will also be the coffee table book, as there is for most of their projects. Christo spent yesterday morning with Wolfgang Volz, the photographer, gathering pictures for the book.”
Tag: 02.28.05
Conductor Arrested For Musician Employment Practices
France has arrested a German conductor at a concert. “Fifteen members of the Cologne New Philharmonic were taken into custody, followed allegations that the 49-year-old conductor had been illegally employing musicians from eastern Europe without work permits. Instead of paying the standard rate, it is alleged, the conductor was giving his musicians just €30 (£21) a day and bussing them between hotels to different European venues.”
Spoof “Gates” A Hit
Geoff Hargadon created “13 miniature plastic gates spread across his loft, often tracing the path of his cat, Edie” in a spoof of the Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Central Park “Gates.” Hargadon — “Hargo,” as he’s now known — had to shut down his Web site featuring photos of “The Somerville Gates” after it received 5.5 million hits in one week. He’s been fielding media calls nonstop and has been interviewed by reporters from Germany to Colombia. The art department at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., said Friday that it wants one of the Somerville gates for its collection.”
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.”
Where New York Goes To Make Art
Where is the hot art scene in Manhattan these days? Okay, Soho has gentrified itself out of art. But the new art hotspots are compelling…
Art Of Collecting (When Just Money Won’t Do It)
These days it takes more than money to buy art from the hottest artists. “The contemporary-art market hasn’t been this overheated since Soho circa 1989. Nowadays, hedge-fund billionaires who stroll into Chelsea galleries seeking work by Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, or Cecily Brown quickly discover that money alone won’t help them get it. There is, more than ever, a waiting list, and more to the point, a pecking order within the list, which vaults some collectors above others.”