Seeing Saffron

Jesus, Christo!

I found myself in New York City this weekend, and it turns out there's this thingie called "The Gates" going on there right now. Apparently, these two artsy-fart types named Jeanne-Claude and Christo put up 7,500 identical steel and nylon gates along the paths of Central Park. Who knew? The dominant color scheme is, I'm told, "saffron," and in some lights is close to the orangish color of traffic cones.

I can't speak critically on the artisitc merits of this particular example of installation art in context, but fortunately they pay people to do that very thing. I've read many op-ed jibes about the Christo's latest project, mostly from New Yorkers and following one of two tacks: the money ($21 million) could have been better spent and/or I don't like tourists. Let's approach them separately.

Firstly, the artists spent their own money, so what these people really mean is that they could come up with better ways to spend other people's money. It's kind of like fantasy baseball that way. If I had $21 mil in the bank, I know what I'd spend it on: four words-- solid gold Jet Ski.

Secondly: I'm not a New Yorker, and thus can't manage the righteous indignation neccessary to moan about the indignity of having people from "outside" The City come in and "spend" their money on Manhattan's "businesses" during the "two weeks" that The Gates are up. I personally think The Gates are pretty cool, if for no other reason than for bringing thousands of people together in Central Park for an otherwise unremarkable two-weeks in February.