Went to Christo’s “The Gates” in Central park this past weekend. It was pretty spectacular to see all of the 7500 gates draped around the park… they reminded me a lot of the Inari gates in Kyoto, Japan that I saw on my first trip there in 1998 that lead up a mountain to a sacred shrine. Both Chriso’s and the Inari gates are orange and closely layed out beside each other. I wonder if Christo saw these gates in Japan and wanted to re-create something like them (without the religious aspect). In any case, it was pretty interesting to walk around central park in these extremely colorful pre-determined pathways. Christo apparently paid for the whole installation himself – so I guess it is possible to make some bucks from art.. hehe… ok well I def recommend going out to see them if you are in NYC. (picture coming soon)…
Liked The Gates too, although I think its greatest asset is The Central Park and its original design and pathways and colors and curves and landscapes. Otherwise, it would like an infinite showers curtain exhibition.
Another thing: why do The New York Times calls “populist” to every single thing they don’t know how to name? From Hugo Chavez to The Gates to the Chinese Central Bank policy, everything is populist for the Times.