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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

‘The Gates’ begins to take shape

Karen Matthews Associated Press

Under bright, sunny skies in New York City’s Central Park, hundreds of workers began erecting thousands of poles this week for “The Gates,” the large-scale public work of art by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

“The Gates, Central Park, New York, 1979-2005” consists of 7,500 gates, each 16 feet high, along 23 miles of footpaths in the park. Free-hanging, saffron-colored fabric panels will be unfurled from each gate and dangle 7 feet above the ground.

It opens Saturday and will be in place until Feb. 27. About 70 teams of eight people began working Monday to attach the vinyl poles to steel bases to form the framelike gates.

Bystander Bruce McCandliss stood admiring their work.

“It’s really impressive to see something like this take over the whole park,” said McCandliss, an assistant professor of psychology at Cornell Medical School. “All this in the name of art – I’m wondering what effect it will have on the city.”

The city’s Economic Development Corp. has estimated that the project could result in 90,000 additional tourists.

Some workers were setting up a merchandise table for an array of souvenirs for the occasion: key chains, baseball hats, watches, T-shirts, magnets and mugs.

“It’s a great project,” said one of the workers, law student Thomas Vandenabeele. “The project will help the park. I think we’re working for a good cause.”

“The Gates” is the first hometown piece for the New York City artists, whose temporary installations in public spaces around the world have been both exalted and maligned.

In 1982, they surrounded 11 islands in Miami with pink woven fabric; in 1995 they wrapped silver fabric around the German Reichstag; and in 1991 they opened 3,100 umbrellas in Japan and California.

Preparation for “The Gates” began in December, when 15,000 steel bases were brought to the park and moved gradually to designated spots along the park’s footpaths.

“It’s an incredible opportunity to be a part of something that’s a really important piece of art,” said Boo Poulin, a jeweler from Rochester, N.Y., who’s working on the project.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude visited the site briefly and greeted schoolchildren who were looking at some of the poles.

“It’s about art. It’s about beauty and joy,” Jeanne-Claude told the youngsters.

The artists’ Web site says the work “will create a visual golden river appearing and disappearing through the bare branches of the trees, highlighting the shapes of the footpaths. The luminous moving fabric will underline the organic and serpentine design of the walkways, while the rectangular poles will be a reminder of the grid pattern of the city blocks around the park.”

The husband-and-wife team is paying for the project without sponsorship or donations. They have said they hope it will cost less than $21 million, but the final figure will not be known until the piece is completed.