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| “€˜The Floating Piers”€™ on Lake Iseo by the Bulgarian artist Christo on June 8, 2016, in Iseo, Italy. |
The obscure artist Christo has done it again, transforming the here into the now, transcending nature to another realm, creating a heaven on earth for all to enjoy. To his amusement I am sure, the critics are a buzz, and Christo's work takes over digital media without him even posting a single word. As usual, the green devil is at work...
Just in case you are wondering, it is not the 16.8 million dollar budget that the project required for completion, no, Christo funds that himself. The people complaining are expounded by the popularity of the attraction, and pissed because Christo refuses to charge to view and experience his work, so no one is profiting, no one, and that in this 21st century seems to get some peoples goat. I found this article posted to my FB wall and my Twitter, along with seeing it on the Huff stream, all which have been posted a multitude of times along with being tapped into by again by individual viewers, and as the article suggests, the digital media attention is only drawing more people to the installation to take a peak for themselves.
The article:
Priscilla Frank, arts writer for the Huffington Post, speaks on behalf of what seems to be a critic in mentioning the experience as 'offering viewers an admittedly useless but utterly enchanting aesthetic experience for free. " As if viewing anything does something magical that you take physically with you, I am not sure what she was expecting. The installation, speaks words to consumerism, the environment, and ethereal connection. You are allowed or maybe abled to now 'walk on water' with out disrupting the natural flow of the environment, is that not enough. Oh and is just so happens that it is Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
Literary Dimensions:
Coming from the Huff, of course the article is left for the reader to make meaning and takes on multiple persona's to give the full story, though slightly swayed by the author there is plenty of room for ones own identity to take poll on the event at hand. Though you can't participate by leaving a comment, I am sure Frank has received plenty of emails from both sides weighing in. It is unclear if the author has actually been to the cite, (actually, I can guess that she hasn't, or that she is just not a fan),and of course participation by the public in reality is the problem, overwhelming popularity of the installment has left eager viewers waiting and some times stranded.( This is really the concern of the critics, boo-hoo, have you ever been to the Louve? Ok, me neither, but I hear it can take all day to get in, and do you get to take anything but the experience home, no.)
Modifications:
Because the posts comes from " a newsworthy' kind of site, there are no comments, though I wish there were, especially for this article it would be interesting to see the participation in the comments from all sides, especially because Christo is famous for chiming in. In this aspect a bit of the interaction is lost, but because of the nature of the topic and the artist, I do think that people probably continue to explore thereafter.
Frank did include a multitude of images, that tell the story literally from beginning to end, I found the pictures of the production even more intriguing that the finished product, and hope that these images will too encourage readers to look more into the work of the artist.
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| During the life size test at Montecolino- Christo, Iseo, Italy. |
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/is-christos-latest-masterpiece-a-major-waste-of-money_us_57714901e4b0f168323a2f7a
http://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/literacy/5-dimensions-of-critical-digital-literacy/
http://christojeanneclaude.net/
