2.15.2005

Your MoMa so dumb she thoughts the Gates were in Frisco!

This weekend Molly, a few grad school friends, and I took a day trip to New York. It just so happened that Saturday was the grand opening of Cristo and Jeanne-Claude's The Gates. The artists have done many previous pieces of modern art that I have seen images of but never experienced. Some work has included wrapping the Reichstag in Berlin, circling islands in Miami, and, my favorite, putting up a fence through Sonoma.

The Gates project is essentially a series of orange frames with orange fabric hanging from each one. The gates are spaced about 10 ft. apart and cover 23 miles of paths through Central Park, New York. The project was planned over twenty years, but every Mayor of the city rejected the project until now. They set up a warehouse to create all of the gates and the project cost $22M USD. To fund the project themselves, the artists created images and schematics which were sold.

I found the gates to be underwhelming. I think the concept is very interesting and the thought of paths through one of the world's most famous parks covered is unique. However, there is no enclosed feeling, nor are the gates very continuous. I believe an aerial view wouldn't provide much more that sight of many orange frames of metal.

The neat things about the exhibit the amazing about of resources and planning that went into creating such an attraction. Also, it was great to see so many people in CP on a relatively cold and grey day.

From there Molly and I went the new Museum of Modern Art. Although the place was very crowded, the building and art was wonderful. The collection is very diverse and laid out well. I strongly suggest going there if you have a chance. Interestingly enough, there were a lot of younger people there.

On a final note, if you ever have Dim Sum, I suggest avoiding the chicken feet.

posted by nick at 9:21 PM | Permalink

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