More Kudos to Christo and Jeanne-Claude

I went to hear Christo and Jeanne-Claude speak the other night and I couldn't have been more impressed. The 72 year old artists were thoroughly entertaining as they told the story of their art. I was already impressed by their refusal to accept corporate support, and my admiration only increased when I learned:

• All of their works are recycled when they are taken down and the recycling plan is always included as part of the initial planning/creation process.
• Very often their work leaves the locations in better shape than how they found them. For instance they cleaned up the island and river where the Surrounded Islands were located.
• It often takes years (if not decades) to get the permissions to make their works that ultimately only last for a few weeks.
  

Here's a quote from an interview where Jeanne-Claude explains why their work is temporary:

Throughout the millenniums, for 5000 years, artists of the past have tried to input into their works of art a variety of different qualities. They have used different materials, marble, stone, bronze, wood, paint. They have created abstract images, figurative images, religious images, profane. They have tried to do bigger, smaller, a lot of different qualities. But there is one quality they have never used, and that is the quality of love and tenderness that we human beings have for what does not last. For instance, we have love and tenderness for childhood because we know it will not last. We have love and tenderness for our own life because we know it will not last. That quality of love and tenderness, we wish to donate it, endow our work with it as an additional aesthetic quality. The fact that the work does not remain creates an urgency to see it. For instance, if someone were to tell you, “Oh, look on the right, there is a rainbow.” You will never answer, “I will look at it tomorrow.”

If you ever get a chance to see them speak, don't miss it!