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Artist Christo Gets Nod to Do Up NYC Central Park
By Alden Bentley NEW YORK (Reuters) - Artistic duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude have finally won permission to snake a fluttering orange sculpture through 23 miles of New York's Central Park, ending a decades-old debate, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Wednesday.
The exhibit -- "The Gates, Central Park, New York, 1979-2005" -- will be erected in February 2005 and stand for two weeks.
Christo is famous for his giant temporary works of art, such as wrapping the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art in a tarpaulin and wrapping Berlin's Reichstag in 1 million square feet of polypropylene fabric.
The Central Park work by the husband-and-wife team will consist of 7,500 16-foot-high gates draped with saffron-colored fabric parading along about 23 miles of public paths in the park.
"I predict, whether they love this temporary work of art or not, New Yorkers will certainly make 'The Gates' a very popular topic of conversation," Bloomberg said at a news conference.
The mayor predicted the project will attract half a million out-of-town visitors and generate $72 million to $136 million in economic activity.
First conceived in the late 1970s, the project ran into environmental objections. Among them were the thousands of post holes to be dug in the park to secure the tall upright structures.
In this version of the installation, recyclable vinyl poles will be secured by narrow steel base weights on the paved surfaces of the park's walkways, with no holes in the ground.
Pedestrians will be able to pass under and through the work, drawn as sort of a whimsical tunnel without sides, with cloth draped from cross beams shivering in the wind.
The artists say they will pay for the project themselves and pay $3 million to use the city park.
Christo said New York inspired him as "probably the most walking place in the world," and that the only places where people walk for pleasure are the parks.
The gates and panels will be made in local workshops and factories and transported in pieces to the park for installation.
"The entire project will bloom probably in less than a day," Christo said.
The installation is expected to employ thousands of New York City residents temporarily, he said.
"We'll provide so much employment that soon you will hear 'let them eat gates,"' said Jeanne-Claude, in joking reference to an earlier suggestion that the project was elitist and reminiscent of the quip that cost Marie Antoinette her head.
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