I find myself frequently asking “I wonder what, or why, or how…..” – often totally mundane reactions to something interesting I see or read.  Sometimes these “I wonder” become the stepping stone to learning something I appreciate, but often they just end up as speculations, or are forgotten as soon as I utter them. This week I’ll sample some of these, mostly as an opportunity to share the interesting topics that triggered them in the first place.

Today I wonder, where on earth do artists who do large scale projects get their materials. Naturally this came up when reading about the newest Christo venture in Italy, where his packaging genius allows people to walk on water for the next 2 weeks. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/artists/christo-unveils-a-modern-miracle-for-16-days-they-will-walk-on-w/ The pictures (from the attached review) look enticing. This is the first project since the Central Park Gates and the first that he finished alone after the death of his long time partner in life and art Jeanne-Claude. The construction sketch is below – piers across Lake Iso that people can travel across.

Look at the materials needed – look at the size of the Reichstag that he wrapped – not likely he walked into the Michaels Crafts Emporium and said give me some 55,000 m² of silver-grey shiny polyester fabric and 23 km of rope (which is exactly what the used to wrap a winter landscape of trees in Basel, Switzerland.) I have never seen one of these artworks in real life, but admired when I heard him in an interview how he simply refers to the pleasure and joy art can transmit without having to have deeper meaning. They always mention that the materials are recycled after the project is taken down (some criticism has always attacked the size of their endeavors) but I have yet to figure out what sources they use. Definitely not these: This Lower Eastside fabric outlet, there for generations, sold part of its building on Grant St. last year to some bank for $25.6 million – I guess upholstery didn’t pay the rent with Ikea in town….

 

The photograph of the flowers was taken at Frieze Artfair – unfortunately I cannot find the name of the artist. But it is another one of those where I wonder, where do the materials get collected???