The Gates
02/12/05
The Gates, Central Park
4:10 PM | Comments (37) | TrackBack (3)
Comments
I love the dog with the gate.
Also, what are the orange ribbons, souvenirs?
Posted by: kharris at February 12, 2005 06:00 PM
I happened to stumble upon your photolog and I am amazed with the pictures. Your city is truly inspiring.
Posted by: marina at February 12, 2005 06:03 PM
I just found your site today and it's really cool. Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Plastic at February 12, 2005 08:38 PM
Mike,
I echo the sentiments of Marina and Plastic. Found your blog via funkdigital. I have from across the river (NJ), and have been in DC for 19 years now. Viewing your pics reignites my consistent, but dormant "homesickness" for NYC.Keep up the good work. The pics are vibrant, the composition eyecatching. What are you shooting with?
pax,
F!
Posted by: Fresh! at February 12, 2005 09:19 PM
You find the best photo-ops.
Posted by: joe at February 12, 2005 09:59 PM
Please tell me the taxpayers arent paying for this "art". It's bad enough that we are paying the police overtime associated with safeguarding it.
Posted by: Mike Ross at February 12, 2005 10:00 PM
Christo the Magnificent paid for it himself...not a red cent of tax money
http://www.forgotten-ny.com/forgottenblog/forgottenblog3.html
Posted by: Kevin Walsh at February 12, 2005 10:33 PM
I must admit that I am not enamored of the gates (understatement), but I still love your photos.
Posted by: Phyll at February 12, 2005 10:40 PM
Christo is also paying the police overtime.
Posted by: joe at February 12, 2005 11:37 PM
kharris: the orange ribbons were attached to the piece of plastic keeping the fabric in place until today. When it was time to release the fabric, they grabbed the ribbons with the hooks, yanked, and the gates fell down (pic #1 is of a gate in the process of falling down) and a cardboard tube fell to the ground.
Posted by: Mike at February 13, 2005 01:06 AM
some great detail shots in there...
Posted by: rion at February 13, 2005 09:47 AM
I've got to say it... I just don't get the gates. I don't understand what people find so amazing about them, why they're supposed to be inspirational, why this is somehow great art. It just looks to me like Christo set up Central Park as an Olympic giant slalom course, only without the snow or the ski slope. Maybe it'll make more sense when I go see it in person, which I plan to do this week, but I just don't get it right now.
Posted by: Jesse at February 13, 2005 03:03 PM
I love the different approaches people are taking to photographing this installation. I love the "photo op" box :)
Posted by: miles at February 13, 2005 10:48 PM
I hope somebody hangs themselves on one of 'em.
Posted by: SkinnyPeterM at February 14, 2005 01:00 AM
great looking pictures.
Posted by: Rik at February 14, 2005 02:22 AM
I just don't get the gates either. I like the slalom idea. Makes about as much sence...
Luv the photos though!!
Posted by: Cheryl at February 14, 2005 07:57 AM
Mike, Thanks so much for posting these. I'd completely forgotten that this weekend was the unraveling. As for the night-time security, I thought that I'd read it was private security and not NYPD. But I guess if the artist is the one paying the overtime, what's the difference. Great pics as always!!!!
Posted by: Michael at February 14, 2005 08:50 AM
I like your pictures of the Gates better than I like the actual Gates.
Posted by: Cranky New Yorker at February 14, 2005 12:32 PM
Jesse & Cheryl;
I've heard lots of people say the same thing, so you're certainly not alone.
But what, exactly, is it that you want to "get"? There's nothing to get...they're big orange gates spread out over the park pathways. That's it. There's no secret idea that you're missing--it is what it is.
Which is: An enormous, audacious project that transforms the experience of walking through the park while highlighting the form of the park itself, i.e. Olmstead's winding pathways. On a basic tactile level, walking under the Gates is fun and interesting: The changing light affects the way the fabric looks, sun shining through the fabric creates brilliant color projections, and the familiar landscape of the park is changed/highlighted in delightful little ways.
Most of all, it's bringing throngs of people to the park in a period when it's usually deserted. What's wrong with that?
I love the Gates myself, and have enjoyed spending several hours just walking through them. If I may be presumptuous for a moment, I think that people who don't like them, or don't "get it," are expecting something that the project never intended to provide.
Posted by: scott at February 14, 2005 02:34 PM
I like it because it's orange.
Posted by: Anais at February 14, 2005 04:36 PM
I think they look like those clunky voting booths we have in NY. Fugly.
Posted by: Phyll at February 14, 2005 06:20 PM
Ok, your pictures of the Gates are the best by far--but please NO MORE GATES. they are on every site I link to--SHEESH!! wasn't ANYONE hungover on Sunday? Or was everyone in the park snapping up pictures???/
Posted by: Jocelyn at February 15, 2005 12:08 AM
somebody please kill that dog and put it out of its misery!
Posted by: pet lover at February 15, 2005 01:44 AM
The preview pics made me remember "Anecdote of the Jar" by Wallace Stevens. Everybody should read that poem for another way of looking at the gates.
Posted by: colter at February 15, 2005 12:17 PM
My feelings towards Christo's "art" is anything but positive. I cannot believe that someone hanging up orange sheets in a line is considered art. I cannot help but think of all the volunteers that put time and effort into this rediculous project that turned out to be anything but beautiful. Keep the sheets for your bed!
Posted by: Jennica at February 15, 2005 01:28 PM
I can't believe they haven't been vandalized yet. The graffiti artists must be drooling....
Posted by: Mitch45 at February 15, 2005 02:14 PM
I hope the taxpayers did not have to spend $$ on this ridiculous spectacle!
Posted by: dallas girl at February 15, 2005 02:26 PM
Check out these gates photos I took on Saturday.
http://centralparkgates.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Peggy at February 15, 2005 02:50 PM
Thank you for shooting of some of the gates. I cannot escape FL to venture up and see the Gates. I have always been a fan of Cristos.
To dallas girl. No tax payer money funded this venture.
Posted by: Rox of Spazhouse at February 15, 2005 07:37 PM
Wow, that is unique.....I liked your evening preview photos of the gates......If nothing else they add some color to a normaly dull seasonal landscape.....poor dog tho...people can be alittle too enthusiastic!
Posted by: psychowench at February 15, 2005 11:41 PM
I think there's plenty to see in the winter landscape of Central Park without Christo's orange-ego thingies.
Posted by: Phyll at February 16, 2005 10:46 AM
They arent "art"; they just fill up space in a season in which people dont visit the park in great numbers. There is no snow, no leafs, nothing! Now there is something to look at.
However, I dont like the fact that they are all the same color, and they do look like laundry hung
across buildings.
Posted by: Bolshoy Huy at February 19, 2005 11:56 AM
The fabric for the gates is manufactured in Emsdetten/Germany near Rheine.I live there.
Greetings to N.Y.C.
And by the way,nice photos
Posted by: olsen at February 19, 2005 04:23 PM
So...what's this?
Who's paying for it?
Who's paying NYCPD's OT?
I am afraid of the answers!
Posted by: LuisM at February 20, 2005 05:40 PM
You should see them from space...
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/Images/centralpark_IKO_2005043_lrg.jpg
Posted by: mick in the uk at February 21, 2005 05:00 PM
LuisM - the installation and all costs (including NYPD overtime) are covered by the artists. See link: http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/02/16/thegates.newyork/.
- ryan
Posted by: ryan in atlanta at February 22, 2005 05:16 PM
The Gates was an awsome event..the entire experience is just that-an experience...it was fun, and for some reason, extremely unifying ..while my family and i walked the miles, the sharing, talking, photo ops were abounding...and given the temporary nature of the exhibit, it remained fresh up until the end! To judge it from afar does no justice to being there..