Branding breakthrough!
ByOn Saturday, Christo launched his “Gates project in Central Park in New York City. He has installed 7,500 saffron-colored gates on 23 miles of park pathways. These will remain in place till February 28th.
Christo is a French-Bulgarian artist well known for his monumental interventions in public space. He created a “running fence in northern California that ran 24.5 miles across the countryside before plunging into the Pacific ocean.
In 1995, Christo wrapped the Reichstag in Berlin,
In 1983, Christo wrapped 11 islands in Biscayne Bay in hot pink polypropylene.
In a surprise, cobranding/endorsement move, Saran Wrap announced today that it would release a brand called ChristoWrap. “We believe that housework is art and that housewives are artists. ChristoWrap gives homemakers a chance to bring new levels of aesthetic accomplishment to the refrigerator, the kitchen, and the home, said a Saran Wrap representative.
Christo is famous for conscripting non artists as artists. During the making of Running Fence, for instance, he declared that any farmer who objected to the fence was engaged in art. “ChristoWrap will help make artists of us all, he declaimed.
ChristoWrap will remain on the shelves until the end of the month.
References
For more on The Gates project, go here.
For more on the Reichstag wrapped, go here.
For more on the illustrious career of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, go here.
last note:
In a last minute announcement, Saran Wrap has said it will give a portion of the proceedings of ChristoWrap sales to the Orson Wells/Alan Sokal Fund for the Perpetuation of Contemporary Apochrypha.
5 Comments
February 15th, 2005 at 4:58 pm
"Orson Wells/Alan Sokal Fund for the Perpetuation of Contemporary Apochrapha".
Christo wrap!!! ha, ha,ha You are one funny guy, Grant McCracken.
Two small corrections. 1. Christo is originally Bulgarian 2. Apochrypha
February 15th, 2005 at 6:53 pm
Wodek, thanks for the detail and the spelling correction. What would Hargurchet have said! Best, Grant
February 16th, 2005 at 1:55 pm
I would have thought a Lori Keevil-Matthews Foundation a better recipient of Christo's largesse.
February 16th, 2005 at 11:39 pm
Kevrob, I had to look Keevil-Matthews up. (She was, for those who would have to do the same, is a woman killed by a Christo exhibit.) Good point. Thanks. Grant
April 29th, 2005 at 1:04 am
my mom was Lori Rae Keevil-Mathews the woman killed by Christo. what foundation are you talking about? J. Keevil