Against All Odds

This is an image of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Running Fence. It is currently part of the exibitions on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. This fence made it's appearance across Northern California in 1976. It took years to plan and months to construct. Billowing white 18 foot high nylon panels hung from cables. These cables stretched for 24.5 miles.

The artwork's cresendo was its disappearance into the Pacific ocean. This project involved 240,000 square yards of fabric, 90 miles of steel cable, 2,050 steel poles, 350,000 hooks and 13,000 earth anchors. Wow. Keep in mind too they had to get permission from every land owner the fence ran through and every local authority who could raise a fuss. Can you imagine convincing a California farmer to let you place 'art' on his property?

After 2 weeks the piece was dismantled. Was it a success? Did it serve any purpose? Well, here I am 34 years later talking about it. I am sure everyone was talking about it in 1976. I imagine even if you thought the whole concept was ridiculous it still caused conversation about art. Christo and Jeanne-Claude did many such projects. Maybe you remember several years ago when they placed the 'Gates' piece in Central Park. I wish I had figured out how to get there and see it.

Sadly, we won't see any more work by this inventive and ambitious duo. At least their ideas and art continue to spark conversations and maybe even cause a few head scratches.