Imagine, a creative conception in the making for twenty-seven years, and jaded college students write it off as “banal” and “unimpressive”. Reading the responses to Christo’s “The Gates” in last Friday’s Argus was aggravating to me. As a freshman, I have noticed that often, Wesleyan students zealously protest anything they can that would fit under categories as ‘institutional’ or ‘capitalist’. As a native Californian experiencing my first east coast winter, “The Gates” offered a true respite from the relentless weariness of gray days. I arrived in Central Park with two friends, and the saffron flags in the early afternoon wind broke up the monotony of so many dreary winter days.
I experienced genuine exhilaration from “The Gates”, and I find it sad that the students interviewed for the Argus article felt more of a desire to make a controversial statement completely negating the efforts of the artists’ conception, than to appreciate the beauty that “The Gates” brings to the distinct chill of February. If the artists want to spend their money to fund the 21 million dollar project, I do not find it an ironic comment on capitalism. Rather, “The Gates” will bring art to people’s lives that may not have discovered it otherwise. Unlike an elite opening of an exhibition in a standard art museum, dawdlers of New York City will have the brief chance to wander into the park looking for a bench, and have no choice but to perceive “The Gates” and wonder its purpose. There for only two weeks, “The Gates” offers its audience a luminous insight on the ephemeral nature of life.
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