**Photos on tumblr here.
During one of the AEP SOVA lessons, we learnt about a very interesting couple (not kidding). 2 artists, with extraordinary ideas and aesthetic visions. They obviously impacted 20th Century art (Modern/Contemporary Art) with their works. As the title of this post suggests, they are undeniably THE Christo and Jeanna-Claude.
A husband-wife partnership based in the Big Apple (New York), the duo explore the globe to create incredibly large-scale (literally) and avant garde projects.
What do they do exactly? Now, this closely relates to what Svena (my peer) and I did for this mini experimentation work we did (more later). They wrapobjects. Starting with mini objects like bottles, tins and cans, as time passed, they wrapped things that were bigger. Interested in textures (crumpled paper, fabrics), they constantly changed their wrappings. Their famous works include the Pont Nuef (Paris) and Reichstag (Berlin). Both were historical monuments of their respective cities. Their works suggest and conceals the subject matter which is really (in my opinion) what makes the work so exciting and intriguing.
Another big project the couple did was the Wrapped Coast, 1968-69 (New South Wales, Australia: Little Bay). According to their official website it was stated that “One million square feet (92,900 square meters) of erosion-control fabric (synthetic woven fiber usually manufactured for agricultural purposes) were used for the wrapping. 35 miles (56.3 kilometers) of polypropylene rope, 0.6 inches (1.5 centimeters) in diameter, tied the fabric to the rocks. Ramset guns fired 25,000 charges of fasteners, threaded studs and clips to secure the rope to the rocks.” Link:http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/major_coast.shtml (Accessed: 26 February 2012)
The materials used in Wrapped Coast were either reused again in other art projects or recycled. The whole project was solely-funded by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Their main source for funds were from the sales of their preparatory and research drawings.
The work held a monochromatic colour scheme, with alot of textures (the drapery of the fabric on the rock edges) and lines (coast against the horizon in the sky). I feel that the work largely reminded me of Cubist works especially those from Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The geometric shapes (rocks) in the work were reminiscent to Pablo Picasso’s Women with a Guitar (Ma Jolie), 1911. Gosh, those fragmented and chopped-up forms in Ma Jolieresembled the rocks in Wrapped Coast.
The project utilised alot of manpower and all of them were duly paid except for 11 students (who refused). Professional mountain-climbers were engaged to assist in the construction of the work which took approximately a month.
The coast was wrapped for 10 weeks until 28 October 1969. Upon unwrapping, the site was returned to its original state. Proceeds of the admission of viewing the work were used as charity to Prince Henry Hospital (owner of Little Bay).
Enough of Christo and Jeanne-Claude! One may ask, so what did Svena and I do? Basically, we were given some cling wrap and asked to roam around the school and find an object and wrap it. Sounds cool much?
We needed to find a subject matter that was unique! I must say that the school is quite small, so it was rather difficult to choose our target (to wrap). Interested in bright-coloured objects, we hunted. In the end, we saw Mr McDonalds sitting outdoors near the outdoor basketball court. Apalled by his awkward yet fascinating body language (as he had his arms hung out mid-air) and his position (on a bench facing the basketball court), we wanted to maximise our chances of making this awkward Mr McDonalds fit in to his surroundings by… WRAPPING! Thus, we finally hose to wrap Mr McDonalds (don’t ask me why its in school; it just is.)
How could we wrap Mr McDonalds such that he could fit in nicely to his surroundings then? After all, he does have to fit in to “society” (in this case, the school compound) right? Ha. An idea struck us. Due to the fact tha Mr McDonalds was positioned in an area near the outdoor basketball court, we decided to make it seem as though he was one of the basketball players or coach in the school. How so?
As the Basketball team was training nearby, we requested to use one of their basketballs and attach it to the hand of Mr McDonalds. This way, it will look like Mr McDonalds (now a basketball player) was in the midst of bouncing a basketball, fitting into his surroundings. We positioned the ball below the palm of Mr McDonalds and used the cling wrap provided and wrapped the ball to his hand. We experimented with the thickness of the cling wrap. In some areas, we used more wrap, and in some, we used less. This created a variation in intensity of the colour of the cling wrap (from white to transparent) which in turn causes a spectrum of textures on the ball and the hand.
We then proceeded onto wrapping the upper body of Mr McDonalds, to create a balance with the wrapped hand and ball. This time, we wrapped the body with a particular orientation, round and round the waist of Mr McDonalds. We minimised the usage of wrapping his waist in other directions. Hence, horizontal lines are created spanning across his waist and chest area. This was our form of experimentation with the cling wrap. Contrasting the wrapped ball (whereby wrapping was done in all directions) and the wrapped upper body, there were different lines and textures created. The body was more precise in the wrapping, resulting in a more polished and sleek look. The eyes will also follow the directional lines on the cling wrap (eye movement).
In addition, Svena and I wrapped the head of Mr McDonalds. We return to using the element of chance (using abit of Dadaist ideas) and wrapped the head in random directions and orientations. A more rough and unfinished look was created with this technique.
We also observed the material used - cling wrap. The cling wrap was transparent, yet layers and layers of them overlapping on top of each other as we wrapped, subtly concealed the identity of Mr Mconalds. A variety of textures were created; there was a wrinkly effect due to the cling wrap being crumpled up. There was also a smooth effect due to the natural texture of the cling wrap (it is made of plastic).
It is evident that a monochromatic colour scheme is utilised in this work, as only one material of one colour was used. However, there is still a variation of saturation of the colours of the wrappers because, the cling wrap is able to vary the intensity of the white/transparent hue. I find this really remarkable as only materials like cling wrap and cellophane paper can do this.
The finished Mr McDonalds was only wrapped from his head to his hips. In my opinion, I feel that Svena and I were successful in trying to make him fit in to his surroundings as he does look abit like he is playing basketball sitting on the bench, while watching his other “teammates” playing basketball in the court. We sort of did embody the ideas that Christo and Jeanne-Claude had pushed across through their works such as experimenting with textures and lines via the single material used for wrapping.
Anyway, this was a very rewarding and fun project. Svena and I thoroughly enjoyed the wrapping process and were laughing while discussing our next steps throughout the process. Ha, we also took some pictures (seen above). I feel that we were productive and successful.
Once we completed the work, we removed the cling wrap and recycled the platic in a recycling bin (Yay! Save the Earth!). Just as how Christo and Jeanne-Claude did, we conserved the environment by recycling the materials.
I shall not bore you with more talk! Pictures speak a thousand words. Here are some pictures we took while wrapping and also a few pictures of works from Christo and Jeanne-Claude.
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