In keeping with Christo’s announcement last month that his planned Colorado project, “Over the River,” would be indefinitely postponed, federal judge John Kane has ruled that the artist cannot move ahead with the project until a lawsuit attempting to stop it is resolved.
Christo and Jeanne Claude
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Christo Announces Indefinite Delay in Colorado
The artist Christo appeared in Cañon City, Colorado, yesterday to announce the postponement of his controversial “Over the River” project. The 77-year-old artist did not give a new date for the project, saying only that the current legal issues need to be resolved before the work can go forward.
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Court Ruling Further Delays Christo’s Colorado Project
A judge has halted ROAR’s lawsuit against Christo’s “Over the River,” but only so that a previous appeal of the project can be reviewed.
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Christo’s Colorado Project Faces “Serious Traffic Review”
Just a few months after the exhibition date of Christo’s “Over the River” project was pushed back by a year, Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) officials have announced that the work will be extensively examined for its potential impact on traffic on Highway 50, the central road that runs through Bighorn Sheep Canyon, the site of the installation.
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Business Class Art at JFK
JFK Airport, Queens, NY — On my way to Cape Town, South Africa I got bumped off my flight but upgraded to business on a flight four hours later. Free drinks and dinner in British Airways business class lounge and to catch up on some work poses no problems. Walking in to a new space I regularly take note of the art hanging on wall. At first glance the “toned down” works amongst the decor of the lounge appeared to be a traditional “hotel” selection and I was about to let it be when, on closer inspection, I realized I was surrounded by a collection of (admittedly toned down) work by some of the world’s leading artists.
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Mail Art Bulletin: No History, Only a Present
As we dig through our Mail Art Bulletin submissions, our participants have taken to constructing a history of Mail Art through correspondence. We received three envelopes with references to Ray Johnson, the godfather of mail art.
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Colorado Christo Still Wrapped in Environmentalist Worries
In the latest of a long series of environmental mishaps that have attended the artist’s environmental installations, Christo’s “Over the River” project continues to be plagued by worries that the planned piece will harm its surroundings. This time, the concern is that the installation will interrupt the migration and mating patterns of animals that make their home in the Arkansas River, Colorado setting.
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Public Art Versus Public Good
Over the past week, I’ve been writing about art’s environmental impact and how that factors in to perceived artistic quality. What the debate boils down to for me is the question of whether art is worth its cost of production, and how we analyze a piece of art’s efficacy or value.
When we talking about public art or outdoor installations, we must factor in another aspect of the work’s impact: how does the work effect the public whose space and resources it occupies? Since public art faces scrutiny on a greater scale than most collector-driven contemporary art, it has a greater audience to please, and a greater responsibility towards transparency.
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Evaluating Installation Art, Should Environmental Cost be Considered?
When we talk about art, we rarely talk about its environmental impact. What’s the carbon footprint of manufacturing a fiberglass Jeff Koons versus the making of an Andy Goldsworthy? As opposed to, say, water bottles, the cost of making a work of art rarely factors into how the work is analyzed and accepted. It is not for art critics to ask how many trucks were used to make Spiral Jetty. But why not? At what point do the environmental shifts and changes in the natural order that these pieces require outweigh their artistic value?
Posted inOpinion
8 Deadly Works of Art
After Ai Weiwei’s Tate exhibition was effectively quarantined for its impact on visitors’ health and well-being, we thought we’d investigate the art world for a few other pieces and exhibitions that ended up being a little more than curators and artists bargained for. From the Tate Modern’s numerous Turbine Hall offenses to falling sculptures, environmental devastation, and out of control Richard Serras, here are a few works we’d only want to admire from a safe distance.
