The Gates

Robert Mayles’s film documents Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s largest and most controversial project yet

Comments (0) By Nick Keppler Thursday, May 22 2008

Christo and Jeanne-Claude have covered entire islands in pink polyester and whole landscapes with umbrellas. The Gates, another site-specific, larger-than-life, conceptual art project, brought them to New York, and the whole thing was captured in Robert Mayles’s documentary, also called The Gates, which screens today at Discovery Green.

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Planned in 1979, the project hung 7,503 five-meter-tall, saffron-colored pieces of cloth along pathways in Central Park for two weeks in February 2005. Some, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, applauded them as a change from the dreary wintertime scenery; others, including TV hosts David Letterman and Keith Olbermann, saw them as annoying and pointless. It all led back to the ultimate question of whether Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works are merely meddlesome intrusions of the art world into the real world, or if some people just don’t “get it.” 8:30 p.m. Discovery Green, 1500 McKinney. For information, call 713-639-7515 or visit www.mfah.org. Free.
Wed., May 28, 8:30 p.m., 2008