Over the River
Jon ForemanHush
I heard a sound come from the ground
All of the trees are a-buzz
Talking in tongues
Talking with lungs
Talking of freedom
All of the earth is soon to give birth
Look at the mountains, alive
Birds and the bees, insects and me
All of us longing, longing for home
Home is somewhere I’ve never known
Over the river
Over the river
I’ve set my hope
Over the river
Over the river
I’ll find my home in you
Death, where is your sting, your signet ring?
Where is your power?
Why all this war?
Death to the score
Nations are fading
Kingdom of light, setting us right, finally human
Give me your tongue, you will be done
Inside I’m longing, longing for love
Love is something I’ve never known
Over the river
Over the river
I’ll find my home
Over the river
Over the river
I’ll find my hope in you
Hush
“We are elated,” Christo said. “Every artist in the world likes his or her work to make people think. Imagine how many people were thinking, how many professionals were thinking and writing in preparing that environmental impact statement.”
—Christo, discussing his “Over the River” Project in Colorado. Definitely a unique perspective on the Environmental Impact Statement Process.
Tweets from Christo’s Honorary Degree Ceremony/Lecture
Tweeted live from Occidental College (February 23, 2011)
Front-and-center to watch Christo receive an honorary degree (@ Occidental College) http://4sq.com/faXaCC
“Christo & Jean-Claude are zen masters of patience…their art puts the democratic process in front of us in painful slow motion”
“they’ve made the debate about art & it’s transformative quality the subject of their work….the results are nothing short of breathtaking”
“Their art brings communities together and transforms the viewers into participants.”
Ceremony concluded. Christo is giving a slide presentation on his oeuvre.
Christo & Jean-Claude were both born June 30, 1935. They met in 1958, had a son in 1960 & moved to NYC
Was working on “over the river” in early 90s when opportunity arose to convince Germany to let them wrap Reichstag (wrapped it in summer 1995)
1996 returned to river project site to take measurements and do more detailed drawings
Still trying to do “Over the river” all these years later…
The drawings and prototypes for “Over the River” are GORGEOUS!
Showing photos of his studio in Soho — had an awesome visit there in March. Studio visits are best way to understand an artist’s practice.
He sells his drawings, collages, etc to help pay for these expensive projects.
Dear Santa, I’d love a Christo drawing of the wrapped Reichstag for Christmas. Kthxbai.
Christo is telling stories about doing a project in Abu Dhabi in 1979 — when no one had heard of AD.
Bloomberg’s election made it possible to realize the Gates in Central Park — Giuliani had blocked it with red tape for years before.
Even with Bloomberg’s support, it still took nearly two years to get everything all ironed out & realize the project
“My drawings can’t be a substitute for the real thing…you can’t grasp the complexity of the project” (Christo)
Q: Are you interested in working with computer graphics to enhance the drawings?
Christo: NO. I don’t drive. I don’t talk on phones. I don’t use computers.
Q & A time…
Christo: The work of art is not just the two weeks of exhibition, it’s all the ten or twenty years leading up to it.
Christo: Work has “software period” where it only exists in the minds of those arguing for or against it. Then, there’s the “hardware period” when we build it.
A man said he tried to buy an umbrella, but Christo wouldn’t sell (recycled them instead). Christo says it’s because “one umbrella is NOT the work of art”
Christo: Jean-Claude always said we did a project for ourselves first, & if people like it that’s a bonus…starts with an absolute desire.
Christo: Over 50 years, we’ve realized 27 projects.
Christo: We don’t take commissions. We did projects we felt had to be made.
Christo: I miss Jean-Claude all the time. She was very critical, very argumentative…& this is something, of course I miss. It’s difficult.
The officials just tried to end it & Christo wants to take more questions! Woot!
Christo: We are in final stages of “Over the River” & I want to finish that project b/c it was disrupted twice in 18 yrs (hoping Aug 2014)
Christo called “Running Fence,” a ‘ribbon of light’
That’s all tweeps! Thanks for tuning in ;-)
Over The River
christojeanneclaude.netFederal regulators on Monday approved Over The River, a $50 million installation of anchored fabric over the Arkansas River in southern Colorado by Christo. Huge fan and you can see some of the sketches for the project here.
Looks righteous.
On Brand
I’ve been a fan of the Christos since Calvin Tompkins 2004 profile of the couple and their efforts to bring the Gates to Central Park. Actually seeing the Gates was one of those experiences where forming a new opinion was impossible. I had been looking forward to the project for a year. I loved it.
So when friends of Over the River emailed (I’m on their email list, of course I’m on their email list) to say that Christo was doing a signing two hours away, I didn’t really have a choice about going, and on Tuesday, I drove down to Cañon City, Colorado, one of the sights for Over the River.
Minus the traffic getting out of Denver, the drive down reminded me of the Salt Lake City to Price, Utah leg of my cross-country journey. We did that stretch at night, and the road was unlit and winding. It was my turn to drive, and I was nervous the whole time. Still, even before we arrived at our motel, I knew I would make it, and I would look back on my time on US-6 as proof that I could get through things, or at least through long drives at night.
The drive down to Cañon City wasn’t as hard as the one down to Price, perhaps because I use a car all the time now. The signing wasn’t crowded, but Christo looked halved without Jeanne-Claude by his side and was not as excited as I was for our exchange.
Afterward, we went to Di Rito’s, an Italian restaurant that will probably do quite well during Over the River. Normally, I wouldn’t eat at a restaurant whose name is so reminiscent of a mass-produced corn chip, but eating there wasn’t entirely ironic. Having a meatball calzone in Cañon City, Colorado made sense in my life, just like visiting the Met to see the exhibit of Christo drawings had made sense in my life in 2004.
However, when I overheard the owner describing his food as good, but not $75 a plate in New York good, I laughed, mostly because if you’re paying $75 a plate for Italian in New York, you’re getting ripped off.
