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New York City Website for THE GATES
Opined February 13, 2005
THE GATES– by Christo and Jeanne Claude
Central Park through February 27th
I had the most wonderful afternoon yesterday. Walking with a chum in Central Park through
Christo’s Gates. I have been thinking about why it was such a wonderful afternoon. To be
sure, the company was excellent. We discussed the world, our places in it, what was and was
not working in our lives, how we felt about becoming older, what life was like as a single
person. The whole and the parts.
But what was truly truly wonderful is that we were walking among people who were doing the
exact same thing. All because of THE GATES.
It was a bright mid-winter day. It was too cold for sunbathers to drape themselves over the
landscape. Too chilly for picnics. Not warm enough to dawdle in any way shape or form. It
was walking weather. The way most New Yorkers walk. At a pace fast enough to get you
somewhere and slow enough to allow for a conversation. In this case a conversation that
stretched for sixty blocks round trip. Central Park always has people walking and talking, but not
like this. Thousands of us were there en masse. Nobody was getting in anyone’s way. Nobody
was careening through on a bike. No skates or boards. Just humans and some strollers and a
few dogs. We were flowing. My chum said she likes this because it's a work of art where we
don’t have to stand in line to get in and see it. We don't have to because we are part of the art.
It wouldn't be whole without us moving though it.
I have seen one other Christo project – the umbrellas in California in 1990 something. This too
was a place to walk, but it took a two-hour drive to get there and then the walk was more like a
hike. Cars were involved as we went to both sides of the highway. I do remember the day,
though, and the two friends who were with me. I have even gotten out the old photographs I
took that day.
But these GATES! They are sucking people into Central Park and moving them through like
blood cells through veins. We are going places we have never been before in the Park because
the GATES lead us there. A new slice of color off to the right brings us to a pond that is
thawing on the north side where ducks and sparrows are yammering. A path to the left brings
us to the puppetry theatre, which we discover is just below the Delacorte Theatre – who knew?
And all the time we are talking. Old to young. Men to women and women to men. Girls to girls
and boys to boys. Strangers to strangers. Dogs to dogs.
Lovers will become engaged at the GATES. Some will get married there. Strangers will
exchange phone numbers and make plans and become friends. Others will stay as memories,
like the people with the labradoodle, or the guy with the baby sticking out of his jacket, or the
woman with the neon green down coat. Some relationships will end here. Business deals will
be struck. Stories will be born. Perhaps babies as well. And some people will reamain friends
with each other who say, "Remember that time we walked the GATES?"
Me - I'm going back. Next time, I’m going to take the bus to 110th Street and walk south.
Call a chum. Call that person you keep meaning to see, but you don’t. Make a date.
Do it – really.