Running Fence by Christo and Jeanne-Claude - Essay Example

Running Fence by Christo and Jeanne-ClaudeRunning fence, created by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, was a piece of art that was finished in September 1976 after which the people who build it removed it only two weeks later without leaving any visible trace (Baal-Teshuva 39). The piece of art was comprised of a veiled fence that was almost forty kilometers long that extended across a number of counties towards the north of California. The fence that was five and a half meters high was comprised of two thousand and fifty panels of made of white nylon hanging from steel cable on thousands of hooks.

The Running fence’s cables had numerous and strong supports sticking from the ground while at the same time being braced by steel guy wires that had been anchored on the ground.The fence’s route started near the Highway 101 in the US crossing fourteen roads and fifty nine ranches that were privately owned all the way to the Pacific Ocean adjacent to Bodega Bay. The mandatory environmental impact report for the Running Fence was four hundred and fifty pages long and the art piece is considered as being partially inspired by the fences that demarcated Colorado’s Continental Divide.

The documentary, Running Fence, created by Albert and David Maysles, was based on the art piece and the film is comprised of scenes that show the reaction of the locals to the project that varied from antipathy to delight as well as active protest. A number of people from California, together with Byron Randall, a painter, were against the piece on the basis of infringement of land as well as lacking in artistic aspects; nevertheless, others valued the work’s beauty and ultimately, the project reached completion.

Historic markers decided to commemorate the piece at the Watson School neighboring Bodega as well as State Route 1 in California. The biggest continuous part of the Running Fence that remains intact is hanging below Rio Theater’s ceiling in Monte Rio. The Running Fence is perceived to be among the most significant projects as far as public arts are concerned, and at the time when it was installed, it was one of the most ambitious projects that were embarked on by Christo and Jeanne-Claude after they arrived in the US in 1964.

When the art piece was made public at America’s bicentennial, it caught the imagination of the public as the exceptional beauty of the light as well as the weather that played across the fence’s fabric sharply contrasted with the issue of limitations and division that underlie the aspects that are usually conveyed by fences. In the case of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the fence was an embodiment of bigger issues in regards to human freedom as well as constraint. The manner in which the Running Fence was planned, designed and installed along with the critical response to the piece was a tone setter for the rest of their bigger projects as none of them could have been conceivable without the Running Fence.

Between 1972, when the idea of the Running Fence was initially conceived, and 1976 when it reached completion, the artists experienced apparent overwhelming difficulties and apart from negotiations of land rights with numerous ranchers, they had to deal with administrative obstacles at a time when they were not famous. Nevertheless, the two artists had the ability to convince ordinary people of the transformative aspects associated with art. Work citedJacob Baal-Teshuva. Christo And Jeanne-Claude.

Köln: Taschen, 2001. Print.