The Valley Curtain was an installation art piece created by Christo and Jeanne-Claude in 1972. The location was in Rifle, Colorado between, between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs. This part of the Rocky Mountains includes a geologic phenominon called the Grand Hogback which runs east to west through the mountains. A significant break in the Hogback was created by a creek system running from the nearby mountains to the Colorado River. This break is known as Rifle Gap.
Their piece included a large woven nylon fabric orange curtain, that spanned the entire break of Rifle Gap. Two cocoon-like curtains inside of one another were created to provide extra assurance that the installation would work. The sharp contrast of the orange fabric against the blue sky and the smooth fabric against the jagged rock formations of the Grand Hogback created a significant element in the landscape for western Colorado.
The Valley Curtain project took 28 months to complete. It was installed for almost 28 hours. Significant wind gusts through the mountains required for the piece to be dismantled quickly. 28 months to complete for 28 hours of installtion? What was the time return of investment?
This piece was financed through the sale of the design studies, hand drawings and collages, scaled models and original lithographs.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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4 comments:
Okay; you have the what. So know, what is the "so what" (relationship to your research focus)? If you haven't clarified your research focus, how can this project help you clarify it?
Can you post a picture.
Its amazing how documentation changes everything. Maybe it was installed for just 28 hrs. but a photo can live in books, online, and in a museum for a long time. Photography and documentation seem to be a key part of the land art movement.
that's a good point about the photographs that become a translation/continuation of the project...as do the story/writing/discussion about the work
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