Tag Archive: Art

Gates?

gatesNew York City is all abuzz about “The Gates”. For those of you who haven’t heard about it (I was away when it opened and didn’t know about it until a few days after returning), it is an “art” installation in Central Park. I place the word art in quotes because it is called as such by the artists, though I can find little to fit the description. If you can, imagine a large number (to paraphrase the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy… a really, really, really large number) of roughly 20 foot high steel frames with shower curtains hanging from them (okay, actually there are 7,500 of them). Lining 23 miles worth of walkways in the park. Flapping in the breeze. Oh, did I mention they’re the color of a an orange prison uniform? (The artists refer to the color of saffron, but I’d throw out any saffron of that color.)

gates2I spent an hour or so wandering amidst this unfortunate use of materials (10.5 million pounds of steel, 60 miles of vinyl tubing, 1 million square feet of nylon fabric, plus all the associated nuts, bolts, etc., to hold it all together). The park was thronged with folks there to gawk, to marvel, to critique. One friend of mine said he got a visceral thrill from it. A woman I passed wondered what was to be done with all the steel and plastic after the installation ends (I do too… what does one do with more than 5000 tons of bright orange steel and several thousand bright orange shower curtains?). Don’t forget about the 1 millions swatches of specially made nylon fabric that the artists had commissioned to be given away on a first-come, first-served basis to visitors… figure most of those will end up in the landfill after a few years… months… weeks… days… In an op-ed by Ted Caplow, an environmental engineer, in the New York Times, he mused:

According to the United States Department of Energy, the steel industry in this country consumes about 18 million B.T.U.’s of raw energy to produce one ton of steel. If the cast steel in “The Gates” is typical American steel, then making it has required 97 billion B.T.U.’s, an amount equivalent to the entire annual energy consumption – including that used to run cars, furnaces, air conditioners and home appliances – of nearly 500 New York state residents.

Energy for the steel industry is supplied in roughly equal thirds by coal, natural gas and electricity from the grid. Based on generally accepted rates of carbon dioxide emissions for these three sources, it appears that making steel for “The Gates” churned out 7,000 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the combined output of about 1,600 average American cars for a year (carbon dioxide is viewed by most scientists as a threat to the global climate system). We would have to plant more than 200 acres of trees and grow them for 10 years to remove this carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Central Park has an area of about 800 acres, but only part of this has trees; and the mature trees that dominate the park do not absorb carbon dioxide effectively, so we cannot look to the park to clean up the mess.

In terms of sheer mass, the amount of plastic in “The Gates” is dwarfed by the steel, but emissions of carbon dioxide, dioxins and other toxins from plastics manufacturing are also a concern. The plastic chosen for the supports, polyvinyl chloride, or P.V.C., is an increasingly controversial material that releases dioxins and other carcinogens to the air and water during manufacture (and possibly afterward). Polyvinyl chloride has been singled out as “the poison plastic” by Greenpeace and other environmental groups. We now have 60 miles of it in the park. Clearly, the squirrels were not consulted on this choice.

Is it art? Who knows. I could almost see that if viewed from the air I could, perhaps, find something artistic about it (see picture below). From the ground it was little more than an interesting feat of very basic engineering – interesting for its scope rather than its content.

The artists, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, have stated that it was all paid for by themselves and took them 26 years to create. Perhaps, perhaps not. The city seems to feel that it is bringing in a burst of needed revenue. Most likely true… on this last Sunday, a week after the installation, there still must have been several tens of thousands of tourists there to see it. It certainly is a revenue builder for some folks. Why wasn’t I the one to think of buying up yards of orange nylon (in varying shades, none of which matched the installation) and selling square yards of it for $20 a pop as one enterprising young man was doing? I didn’t come up with the orange ponchos (well, really more of pieces of nylon with a string tying two corners together… very cape-like) for $25 each either. Nor the t-shirts, nor sweatshirts, nor the orange soda sales.

Thankfully, there are those out there with a good perspective on it… I refer you to The Somerville Gates
gates3

..or perhaps to The Crackers, far more intriguing to my mind.
crackers
I leave you with an excerpt from New York Magazine:
“Nobody speaks to Christo!” says his wife and collaborator, Jeanne-Claude, in her dramatic Parisian accent. “Christo is working seventeen hours a day on the drawings we must sell to pay for The Gates. Without these sketches, there will be no Gates!”

So every morning Christo climbs the stairs from the couple’s fourth-floor apartment to his fifth-floor studio. He works, standing, for several hours on wall-size drawings that illustrate the plans for The Gates, the enormous installation he and his wife have planned for Central Park, and which is scheduled to open in mid-February. Sometimes he moves to a table to work on one of six or seven smaller collages, all at various stages of completion. Or he spreads out a drawing on the floor and works, wearing gardener’s knee pads. “Sometimes he comes down to eat raw garlic, which he eats three times a day,” says Jeanne-Claude. “A total of one head of garlic a day, raw, like candies. With some yogurt. And sometimes a glass of soy milk. That takes him about three minutes. Then back to the studio.”

He leaves Jeanne-Claude downstairs to conduct interviews and schedule visits by collectors, several of whom now visit their studio each day. The works are priced by size: The small collages, measuring eleven inches by eight and a half inches, sell for $30,000; the wall-size drawings, at four and three quarters feet by eight feet, go for $600,000. The Gates, which is being financed entirely by the Christos, with not a penny of grants, city money, or donations, is budgeted at $20 million—which translates to a lot of collages, drawings, sketches, and models. “Nobody comes up here unless they are buying!” Jeanne-Claude says. “Are you buying?”

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the Art of Seduction

Q San Francisco
September 1998
Pages 54-55

the Art of Seduction

moutonKiddie porn? Smut? The cause of violence against women? Evil? Is this the latest in anti-television campaigns? An attempt to shut down the neighborhood adult video store? A protest at the local porn theater? Maybe it’s just a bottle of wine.

Surely, back in 1945 when Baron Phillipe de Rothschild created the first “art labels” for Chateau Mouton Rothschild wines, he never had this level of controversy in mind. Over the years the chateau’s wines have featured art from such notables as Dali, Picasso, and Miro. From our own community, works by Andy Warhol (1975) and Keith Haring (1988) have graced the labels of what is one of the world’s greatest, and most expensive, wines.

kenwoodDressing up a bottle in the fashions of some of the world’s greatest artists and designers has caught on like wildfire. Until just a decade or so ago, few besides Mouton Rothschild in Bordeaux and the Vietti family in Piedmont went to the expense and difficulty of coordinating such projects. For the most part, the labels were simple celebrations of the world of wine and food – Mouton had no serious difficulties distributing its wines until 1993, 48 years after their series started. A Balthus sketch of a nude, adolescent female in a suggestive pose started a controversy that caught worldwide attention. The even more suggestive prose that accompanied it brought out activists left and right. Balthus is, admittedly, a controversial artist to begin with–known for his drawings of children experiencing “erotic awakenings.” A group calling themselves “Concerned Adults,” based in Napa Valley, collected hundreds of protest signatures; calling attention to a label they claimed could have come from “the kiddie porn channel.” (Napa Valley apparently has rather comprehensive cable service.) The Mouton response? Continue marketing the wine as is outside the U.S., and send a label with a blank, censored space, to our shelves. Needless to say, the original label quickly became a hot collector’s item.

michelleOther producers have faced similar difficulties. In 1971, the Vietti family, producers of stellar Barbarescos and Barolos, began commissioning artists for special reserve wines in certain years. The first label, a sketch by artist Claudio Bonichi of a nude woman being carried off by a nude man during the historical rape of the Sabines, was banned from the U.S. and the wine was never distributed here.

California producers have jumped on the bandwagon of art labels. Kenwood Vineyards has an artist’s series reserve Cabernet Sauvignon that is excellent. From day one, Kenwood had difficulty–the first label, in 1975, depicted a reclining naked woman as painted by San Francisco artist David Goines. The government agency that approves or disapproves labels, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (a rather interesting juxtaposition of regulated items, no?), gave a resounding “no”. Kenwood’s response was to resubmit the painting with the woman as a skeleton. The BATF re-rejected it, claiming it mocked the dangers of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Interestingly, the owners of Kenwood were among the most vocal critics of the Chateau Mouton label; though in fairness, their protest was over the adolescence of the model, not the nudity.

pegaseSimilarly, the owner of Clos Pegase winery faced controversy over its 1988 Hommage Red wine label that showed a semi-abstract male nude. The end result of a BATF rejection on grounds of indecency–a cropped image that eliminated the nude’s genitals. Though the wine was distributed this way the owner continued a court battle, winning three years later by “proving” that the label was art, by a recognized, known artist (French painter Jean Dubuffet) and therefore exempt from regulations prohibiting nudity in advertising.

The popular wines of Clos du Val are recognized on shelves nationwide. And anyone who knows the label is unlikely to call it obscene. The winery decided to go for a label that used some truly historical art: a sketch by British engraver Leo Wyatt of a 1624 Petel sculpture of the three graces (Splendor, Mirth & Good Cheer) who didn’t happen to be wearing clothes. The label was approved in 1974, then the approval was rescinded and rejected three times, finally winning re-approval in 1990.

duvalNeedless to say, not all artist series labels are controversial. The five wineries discussed above have long histories of using artwork that hasn’t caused a stir. Other wineries have similar programs. Chateau Ste. Michelle of Washington state uses stylized depictions of glass sculptures by some of the world’s greatest craftsmen. Benziger Vineyards has its Imagery Series, a celebration of some of the world’s top artists, on its single varietal wines. Mumm Cuvee Napa had fashion designer Nicole Miller design their premium release bottle to try to attract the “fashion- conscious younger generation.”

Even beer producers have gotten in on the act with a variety of nudes that range from tasteful to questionable. The state of Pennsylvania has declared a reproduction of Brussels’s famous “Mannekin Pis,” or boy peeing, statue as “rude and offensive” and refuses to allow Paulaner’s new beer into the state. The aptly named “Wanker” beer labels are, perhaps, designed with solo beer drinking in mind.

benzigerAs in all art, not only beauty, but pornography is in the eye of the beholder. Wineries will continue to commission artists to create labels. Some may be beautiful, some may be pornographic. It is, perhaps, amusing to think of vintners as visionaries in the mores of our culture; I prefer to think of them as visionaries in the world of taste. But next time you reach for that pretty bottle you may not just be getting good wine to drink – you may be collecting art and you may be collecting history.


Q San Francisco magazine premiered in late 1995 as a ultra-slick, ultra-hip gay lifestyle magazine targeted primarily for the San Francisco community. It was launched by my friends Don Tuthill and Robert Adams, respectively the publisher and editor-in-chief, who had owned and run Genre magazine for several years prior. They asked me to come along as the food and wine geek, umm, editor, for this venture as well. In order to devote their time to Passport magazine, their newest venture, they ceased publication of QSF in early 2003.

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Creativeness Back

Emery
Issue VI, Volume VI
March 21, 1975
pg. 1

Creativeness Back

The Huron High Creative Arts Festival will be held in the cafeteria from 2 till 6 on March 21st.

Seventh hour classes will not be held so that all students will be able to attend.

The program will include: student films, drama presentations, folk dancing, karate demonstrations, gymnastics, a jazz band, poetry readings, forensics readings, and a mime presentation. Food will be served by the International Club. A chess master will play chess games against any challengers, all at the same time.

The Creative Arts festival will be followed by a stupendous spaghetti dinner, complete with entertainment. The entertainment will be a preview of an exciting new play written, produced and performed by the Full Circle prose staff.

This year’s festival promises to be bigger and better than ever before, so be certain to attend and get cultured.


It probably seems silly to include a few pieces from my high school newspaper, but hey, it’s where I got my start writing, so why not?

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