It’s Turkey Time

Jed Perl’s Worst Nightmare — thousands of pedestrian art consumers “experiencing” the Gates — is happening as I type this.

At the press conference with the mayor yesterday, Christo came close — this close — to explaining his intentions behind the project:

Asked often yesterday to explain the meaning of the project, Christo and Jeanne-Claude emphasized that its meaning would have to be found by those who walked through the 7,500 gates, spread over 23 miles of walkways.

“It has no purpose,” Jeanne-Claude said. “It is not a symbol. It is not a message. It is only a work of art.”

But Christo explained that it related in some ways to the unrealized plans of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the park’s designers, to place iron gates at many of the entrances to the park. He added that the fabric panels, which will blow and curve in the wind, are also meant to remind viewers of the park’s serpentine paths and the curves of the empty branches of the trees above them.

After answering several questions, however, Christo became clearly frustrated by trying to explain his work and emphatically urged experience over rational inquiry. “This project is not involved with talk,” he said. “It is real physical space. You need to spend time walking in the cold air – sunny day, rainy day, even snow. It is not necessary to talk.”

Enough talk! Time to go see the things!