The Gates Nostalgia

From an interview with Christo & Jeanne-Claude on The Gates:

"Question: The Gates, like all of your work, is temporary and public. Why do you choose to create temporary public art?
Answer: The temporary quality of the projects is an aesthetic decision. Our works are temporary in order to endow the works of art with a feeling of urgency to be seen, and the love and tenderness brought by the fact that they will not last. Those feelings are usually reserved for other temporary things such as childhood and our own life. These are valued because we know that they will not last. We want to offer this feeling of love and tenderness to our works, as an added value (dimension) and as an additional aesthetic quality."

Yesteryear, before I knew I would count myself among the residents of this metropolis, I came in to see The Gates in Central Park the day it opened. I met up with a group of friends from college, and we walked, for hours, starting at Bethesda Fountain and winding our way through the saffron-bannered crowded paths of the park. It was beautiful. The amazing thing then, and still now when I think of it, was the sheer mass of people experiencing this public art. With the banners flapping over our heads, it felt like a parade. Whether people liked it or not- and there was plenty of both reactions- it was something people felt a need to see, to consider, and to feel for themselves. To me this attitude defines a part of New York City; people here feel a personal right and an ownership to cultural events that is unique. The Gates could have been about creating this compulsion, or appreciating it. Or it could have been about rediscovering, in a dreary month, the most anachronistic and beautiful part of the city, Central Park- or it could be a celebration of artist's obsession- or it could be an aesthetically pleasing array of color in a beautiful setting. Whatever it may have been, I am finding myself missing it a year later, so it was certainly something.