He has wrapped the Reichstag, made a
running fence along the California coast, wrapped the Australian coast,
draped the Arkansas River valley in Colorado, created giant umbrellas
in valleys in Japan and Southern California, and, most recently, filled
Central Park with orange gates. Many of his works can be seen in
satellite photos.
There is no artist quite like Christo, whose visionary and monumental
cloth
works have made him one of the most celebrated, if not controversial,
artists of the twentieth and now twenty-first century.
Now, thanks to the efforts of the Livingston Gallery Association,
Christo has put Livingston under wraps with a project that involves
many Livingston landmarks and natural features. But the news is not all
good.
Christo's arrival here has many citizens tied up in knots.
At first it was the street closures. While the Gallery Association felt
that it was reasonable to close some city streets every day for three
months
while Christo worked on the Depot, the Lagoon Bridge, and the Murray
Hotel
wrappings, some citizens objected. The enormous power wielded by the
Gallery Association resulted in a compromise that many feel was not
good enough. Street closures were limited to six days a week for two
months, but some citizens felt that their voices were ignored. Fred
Gunderson summed it up for many when he said, "My family has lived here
since 1854." Although LOL is not sure what that has to do
with this project, the rest of Gunderson's remarks were quite clear:
"Livingston must still be a railroad town all right, because I've been
railroaded!"
Then the County Commissioners got involved. It seems that the county
actually owns the Absarokas, the Yellowstone River, the Depot, the
Murray Hotel, and the
Lagoon Bridge. The County Commission is trying to stop the project, but
it has
taken on a life of its own. Until someone can decide who will pay for
taking all that cloth to the dump, it appears that
the wraps will remain.
Most local businesses are art friendly, and the patrons at Chadz, MT
Cup, and Hearthstone Bakery are responding enthusiastically to the
inventive new menus of Wraps being served during the Christo
installation. Even the Rib and Chop House is serving Buffalo Wraps, and
the Montana Dawg House is calling its line of hot dogs Weenie
Wraps. Several of Livingston's bands have written special Wrap songs,
while The Fossils are considering a name change for the band to Def
Funk Snoopy Bonz Bonz Really Old Bonz Wham Two for their new CD of Wrap
music.
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Wrapping the Australian
coast was one of Christo's projects long before his Livingston debut.
The artist had to
work
around the roof repair project, and
some felt that the Depot Wrap was too
feminine.
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