Word: plasticity
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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From the looks of Little Bay, one thing was clear. Christo was there. The craggy Australian inlet nine miles from downtown Sydney lay beneath 1,000,000 sq. ft. of clingy, opaque, icky, sticky polypropylene plastic, looking like some improbable flotsam that had drifted in on a high tide, the last relic of a disposal civilization. The Aussies were taking it all in stride. Last weekend, some 2,500 of them happily trooped out to Little Bay and plunked down the modest 20? admission to see what this artist named Christo had wrought...
...some it suggests a collapsed circus tent, to others an agitated whale when the plastic periodically waffles out from under its 35 miles of rope. Says Sydney Art Critic James Gleeson: "It pleases the eye and it is mysterious. Our uncertainty as to whether we are responding to the beauty of nature or the beauty of art merely adds piquancy to the experience." Christo himself likes the different view of reality offered by wrapping. "Packaging-meaning to contain an object by itself in a most realistic way-exposes its commonness in a beautiful and relaxed manner." In the meantime...
...holds up the plastic cylinder. Now this is because when you're up there you get nervous-see. Got to have your cigarette or something. He rapidly unzips all his pockets-his hands dodge in and out-he pulls out gold tipped matches, speed pills, stuff, herseys...
...pilot sinks into his super jet seat and fastens all the straps, both straps, crosses himself into place. Now a little V to the guys out in front, yessirree. Now press the button and the plastic globe roof slips forward. eerrh. lock...
...starts all the things he knows so well how to start-he's ready. He turns the plane, starts his taxi. At six hundred miles an hour down the runway he pulls back and-he's off, that feeling, thrilling feeling. He unzips a pocket and chews on another plastic Nicoban...