Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Running Fence, started in 1972, involved 42 months of collaborative efforts, cost approximately 3 million dollars but lasted only 14 days, when it was finally installed in September, 1976. Due to the involvement of private interests as well as public, Christo and Jeanne-Claude needed 59 ranchers’ participation, 18 public hearings, three sessions in the Superior Courts of California and the drafting of a 450 page environmental impact report to realize their stunning ephemeral Fence.
Drawing attention to the ordinary and under-appreciated rural landscape, the fence inspired and provoked a different relationship with the land, emphasising an unrestrained imagination of possibility rather than the arbitrary nature of political and geographical boundaries, alluded to in its title. The heavy woven nylon fabric had a dramatic and flowing quality, as Christo explains ‘it is the principal material to translate the fragile, nomadic quality of the project…like living objects, the fabric moves.’
Some more statistics for this phenomenal project: ‘At 5.5 meters high and 39 kilometers long, extending east-west near freeway 101, north of San Francisco and dropping down to the Pacific Ocean at Bodega Bay…The white fabric, hung from a steel cable strung between 2,050 steel pole (each 6.5 meters long, 9cm in diameter) embedded 1 meter into the ground and braced laterally with guy wires (145km of steel cable) and 14,000 earth anchors. The top and bottom edges of the 2,050 fabric panels were secured to the upper and lower cables by 350,000 hooks.’ – Land and Environmental Art, 1998
Under Construction
Christo and Jeanne-Claude have a fantastic website and the interview with Christo on their Sydney project “Wrapped Coast” is well worth a look.
Kylie
all art is quite useful 