Christo's Umbrellas...of death.
I stumbled upon a pretty hilarious article about "The Cult of Christo," i.e. the volunteers working on the Gates project in central park. Go read it. It's good.
To steal a particularly choice quote:
"The Umbrellas [another Jeanne-Claude and Christo project] -- that had an unfortunate ending," recalls Fulks [a volunteer]. "Someone actually died. An umbrella fell on them."
"What most people don't realize is, the woman had cancer and she literally had weeks to live," she says. "She went up to one of the umbrellas to grab onto it because she was starting to falter. And the wind came by -- it was a totally freak accident -- and it fell and crushed her.
"What a great way to die! I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but what a cool way to die!"
One problem I have with the article is how they seem to imply that it's somehow unusual or wrong that Christo and Jeanne-Claude take all the credit for their works. I have to disagree, if only because there is a long and beautiful tradition in Western art of famous people taking the credit for work done by their minions. I don't care what anyone says, Michelangelo didn't paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling on his own, but then again, to quote a former professor of mine, "he was a gay."
Now, what is unusual and wrong is Jeanne-Claude's hair - then again, she can pull it off I suppose. Man, if I was French maybe I could pull that shit off, too. Damn French women.
On a completely unrelated note, I recently rediscovered "Hotel," this very cool "interactive tale" (their description, not mine). Leave it to the Dutch to make something this fucked up. If, after being completely baffled by "Hotel," you find yourself hungry for more Han Hoogerbrugge, check out his homepage. Also, the Faint's incredibly cool video for "Agenda Suicide" has a very similar feel. I suspect that Hoogerbrugge actually made it, but this has been hard to figure out - because I'm lazy.
To steal a particularly choice quote:
"The Umbrellas [another Jeanne-Claude and Christo project] -- that had an unfortunate ending," recalls Fulks [a volunteer]. "Someone actually died. An umbrella fell on them."
"What most people don't realize is, the woman had cancer and she literally had weeks to live," she says. "She went up to one of the umbrellas to grab onto it because she was starting to falter. And the wind came by -- it was a totally freak accident -- and it fell and crushed her.
"What a great way to die! I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but what a cool way to die!"
One problem I have with the article is how they seem to imply that it's somehow unusual or wrong that Christo and Jeanne-Claude take all the credit for their works. I have to disagree, if only because there is a long and beautiful tradition in Western art of famous people taking the credit for work done by their minions. I don't care what anyone says, Michelangelo didn't paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling on his own, but then again, to quote a former professor of mine, "he was a gay."
Now, what is unusual and wrong is Jeanne-Claude's hair - then again, she can pull it off I suppose. Man, if I was French maybe I could pull that shit off, too. Damn French women.
On a completely unrelated note, I recently rediscovered "Hotel," this very cool "interactive tale" (their description, not mine). Leave it to the Dutch to make something this fucked up. If, after being completely baffled by "Hotel," you find yourself hungry for more Han Hoogerbrugge, check out his homepage. Also, the Faint's incredibly cool video for "Agenda Suicide" has a very similar feel. I suspect that Hoogerbrugge actually made it, but this has been hard to figure out - because I'm lazy.
posted by Annie at 11:46 AM
1 Comments:
nice post.
i'm going in a week or so to see the gates in central park.
you listen to some good music.
ted leo is sex.
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