Staff Blog
In Memoriam: Jeanne-Claude, environmental artist
posted by Carolyn Huckabay
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| Photo | Bryan Obrien | smh.com.au |
We read on Zoe Strauss’ blog this morning that Jeanne-Claude, one fabulous half of the Christo-and-Jeanne-Claude duo responsible for countless public environmental art behemoths, has passed away. She died last Wednesday, Nov. 18, of complications due to a ruptured brain aneurysm.
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| christojeanneclaude.net |
| The Pont Neuf Wrapped |
For the art world, this is a huge loss. (Among the couple’s most famous work: wrapping the entirety of Paris’ Pont Neuf in silky golden fabric; covering 10-plus miles of land in California and Japan with yellow and blue umbrellas; and installing bright-orange gates throughout Central Park in New York City.)
Scrolling through the couple’s Web site, christojeanneclaude.net, is an adventure: After you check out their crazy-inventive artwork, be sure to click on “Common Errors,” a link that just goes to show how seriously these two have taken their work (fact-checkers, beware). An excerpt:
The Game of Errors: There are six errors in the following published short sentence:
“Christo wrapped some islands in Florida, off the coast of Miami in Key Biscayne with pink plastic.”
1.-2. Christo and Jeanne-Claude never wrapped any Islands. They surrounded the islands. Most journalists do not understand the difference between wrapping and surrounding even though they should know that the United Kingdom is surrounded by water, it is not wrapped in water.
3. There were eleven islands surrounded, but because in two occasions 2 islands were surrounded together, there was a total of nine configurations on a span of seven miles.
4. Not off the coast. Off the coast would be in the Atlantic Ocean, east of Miami Beach.
5. It was in Biscayne Bay in the heart of the city of Miami, between Miami City and Miami Beach. Key Biscayne is miles away from there.
6. Not plastic – FABRIC, woven polypropylene is a man-made fiber, and is woven. Plastic usually refers to a film, not woven. For instance, women who wear nylon stockings are not wearing plastic stockings.
A RUPTURED brain aneurysm is a STROKE. NOT an ‘annie’ Been there/had that/ the ‘annie’….That was CAREFULLY explained to me when I had an ‘annie’ in 2005 & my mother said ’stroke’….One of the nations BEST docs CAREFULLY explained to mother HE was correct and SHE was wrong.
My condolences to the family.