The Gates is a site specific art installation by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The artists installed 7,503 metal "gates" along 23 miles (37 km) of pathways in Central Park in New York City. From each gate hung a flag-shaped piece of saffron-colored vinyl fabric. The exhibit ran from February 12, 2005 through February 27, 2005.
The project is sometimes referred to as "The Gates, Central Park, New York, 1979-2005" in reference to the time that passed from the artists' initial proposal until they were able to go ahead with it.
The Gates were greeted with mixed reactions. Some loved them for brightening the bleak winter landscape; others hated them, accusing them of defacing the landscape. Some cyclists saw them as an obstruction which could cause accidents, although cycling is not legal on those paths anyway.
Construction and cost
The textiles were produced in Germany.
The total materials used according to the artists were 5,390 tons of steel, 315,491 feet (96 km) of vinyl tubing, 99,155 sq m of fabric, and 15,000 sets of brackets and hardware. The gates were assembled in 25,000 square feet (2,300 m²) Long Island facility, then shipped to Central Park.
As one of the conditions imposed for use of the park space, the bases rested upon but were not attached to the walkways, so that no holes were drilled and no permanent change was made in any of the park land.
The artists sold pieces of their own artwork, including designs for The Gates, to finance the project.
They offered a cost of $21 million, but have refused to explain the figure. Greg Allen and the New York Times attempted to itemize the costs and could account for about $5-10 million, given reasonable estimates for parts, labor, and costs related to the staffing of the installation.
Installation
On January 3, 2005, work began on the installation of the project.
During the week of January 17, the park was filled with workers using fork lift vehicles to move the rectangular metal plates into position all over Central Park.
There were small signs placed on every walkway in the park with alphanumeric codes which the workers were using to place the metal places onto the designated spots.
As of January 27, most of the rectangular metal plates had been positioned. Many had small orange plastic markers sticking up a foot or two (around half a meter) from each end, possibly intended to help people find the base plates if they were covered with snow. A major snow storm on January 22 and extreme cold hampered progress.
As of February 7, there were many teams of workers wearing silver grey smocks moving the vertical parts of the gates, and attaching them to the base plates. The documentation describes the color as "saffron" but many local observers described it as orange. Here is the hardware being used to make the vertical pieces parallel, even when the base plates are not parallel (due to uneven or sloping ground).
When attached, the vertical pieces were about 20 feet (6 m) high, with a cross bar at the top from which the flag piece will be unfurled. The most common width seems to have been 11 feet (3.35 meters) although they varied considerably (depending on the width of the path) from 5 feet 6 inches to 18 feet.
Opening
The project was officially launched on February 12, 2005, when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped the first piece of fabric at 8:30 AM, with Christo and Jean Claude in attendance.
The rest of the Gates were opened over the course of the next few hours, with large crowds of people watching. Generally, the crews of people who erected the gates were assigned to open them. They simply had to walk underneath, and use a hook at the end of a long stick to pull a loop hanging from the cross bar of each gate. That opened the cloth bag which contained the "flag" part of the gate. The bag fell to the ground, along with a card board tube around which the flag was rolled. The flag part then hung majestically from the cross bar.
By February 13, all of the flags were unfurled.
The project staff remained deployed in the park, patrolling, and replacing damaged gates. One of the gates, near the Shakespeare Garden, in front of the Delacorte Theatre, was vandalized and replaced frequently.
After the exhibition closed on February 27, the gates and bases were removed.
More photos
- note: each caption is a direct link to the full size image.
Taken on February 18, 2005 from the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
The following high resolution photos were taken on February 23, 2005 near the North end of the Great Lawn:
Inspirations
"The Gates" strongly alludes to the tradition of Japanese torii gates, traditionally constructed at the entrance to Shinto shrines. Thousands of vermilion-colored torii line the paths of the Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto, Japan. Successful Japanese businessmen have traditionally purchased a gate in gratitude to Inari, the god of fertility, rice, and foxes.
 Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kyoto, Japan. |
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See also
References
- Christo and Jeanne-Claude, The Gates: Central Park, New York City, 1979-2005, ISBN 3822842427
- for pictures of the manufacturing process, early meetings with city officials, pictures of the completed project, design drawings, etc.
- for pictures and commentary about earlier projects.
External links
