The Christo and Jeanne-Cleade Projects

Preface

My name is Cassandra Rodriguez and the title of my Pressbook is The Christo and Jeanne Claude Projects. I plan on using the CC BY-NC-ND license to publish and create my work.

The artists that I’ve chosen for this project will be including some of the works from Christo Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude de Guillebon. Similar to the artist introduced to us in Module 2, Alejandro Durán, both Christo and Jeanne-Claude worked all over the world finding opportunities to showcase their work. They differed from Durán though in the fact that they claimed their work was purely for an aesthetic look rather than shining a light on a worldly problem. Still, many people have looked at their work as a juxtaposition between examples of their work and nature.

These two were born on the same day but they met in 1958, after a year, they were married and had been creating aesthetic work since then. Although the work was temporary, since almost all of it took place in a natural environment, I think it still has a lot to say about what we put into our environment and how we treat it overall.

Themes

All of the work for Christo and Jean-Claude can be interpreted in different ways. In the images below, if I had to give a phrase it would be: sometimes, something amazing can come from nothing. These two artists were living their lives and claimed that they didn’t mean anything by their art and although it can be interpreted, they did it because they love what they do and want to share it with the world. It was those in the world that realized what they were looking at that were able to share their deeper understanding and bring awareness to everything going on. Like Durán, they were doing something they loved while also accidentally pressuring people into realizing their mistakes. Yeah a walkway to an island off the coast of Italy is modern and fun but it takes away from the environment and the water and what makes the island an island.

I think the best thing about their work that I realized was that everything they put into nature was temporary. And that’s exactly how it should be. We don’t need walkways to every single island on this planet, we don’t need gates in one of the largest Parks in New York. The work shows you that we as a society can keep going and get upgrades and become more modernized but none of it was meant to be in nature. Nature is something that shouldn’t be touched for too long because whatever we do will cause some sort of destruction on a massive scale. It makes us open our eyes to see that these things are nice but not meant to be here permanently.

Analysis

Application

All through their years, the work created by Christo and Jeanne-Claude has had a meaning interpreted by many as soon as its seen. Like many pieces of work, it inspired a sort of creativity in most minds and those could only guess at what it could mean, and everybody’s interpretation was different. Some of their work has had political backgrounds, environmentalist protection views or have been done simply for appreciation of beauty. Although unintentional, the work of these two inspiring artists turn the heads of many in the environmental protection world. Realizing what they mean and encouraging responsibility are what can help us as humans be better to world around us. Wars have gone international over trivial things such as oil and we are replacing the green nature around us with neon orange gates. It forces the human race to face responsibility so those who are strong enough can fight back and take a win for the environment and our planet.

The most wonderful thing about these artists is that although their work is temporary, It’s always on a humongous stage. The first photo was comprised of over 7,500 oil barrels, the second was done over 23 miles of Central Park, and the third was done at one of the biggest tourist attractions in Paris. These are only three examples of what they’ve done as well, the Reichstag in Germany was a huge government building and symbol of power so when these two aspiring artists covered it, they knew it would send a message. When someone was passing by, it was something that demanded attention, no one could just walk by and go about their day. It forced people to pay attention which is what we as a race need.

Sources