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Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s project, The Umbrellas was conceived as a work of art that was temporary in nature and to be exhibited in two countries concurrently. In the US, yellow umbrellas were to be exhibited in California while blue umbrellas were to be exhibited Japan. One interesting thing about the project is that it was temporary and the artists deliberately did it as a way of appealing to the interests of the targeted audiences. They chose inland valleys in both countries as a way of trying to establish how land in particular was utilised.
According to information obtained from (http://christojeanneclaude.net/projects/the-umbrellas#.VBAu-kDuPMw), “The Umbrellas project was supposed to cover an area of six to eight miles and a total of 3.000 Umbrellas with a height 12 feet and diameter 18 Feet were to be erected. Though the project was supposed to be temporary, it required the efforts of many people who would erect the umbrellas. This was quite an ambitious project given that it was huge and expensive but surprisingly, it was carried over a short period of time.
A lot of money was injected in this project. The other fascinating thing about the project is that the umbrellas were meant to illuminate the inland valleys in a bid to establish the nature of relationship that existed between the people and the environment around them. The artists used space in which the umbrellas were exhibited in both countries as a way of trying to show the similarities and differences with regards to land use in different countries. In both countries for instance, the project became an instant hit with tourists since they attracted a lot of visitors from different walks of life.
This project revealed that leisure is part of life of different citizens of the two countries where the project was exhibited. The other important element about the place where the project was exhibited is that recreational parks as well as open spaces can be converted for better use such as attracting visitors and this in turn helps to generate revenue. In other words, this project was inspirational in that it created employment for more than one thousand people and it helped to generate a lot of revenue.
The other idea behind the project is that the exhibitors wanted to prove to the targeted people that certain pieces of land that are often viewed as idle can be converted for commercial purposes over a very short period of time. The artists were mainly concerned about showing that there is a close relationship between the people and the environment in which they live. The response in both countries was overwhelming which indicates that the people in both countries where the project was exhibited had similar perceptions and views towards the issue of land use with regards to recreation.
Above all, this project showed that leisure and recreation were an integral part of lives of humans from both countries. This project helped the people to reflect on the importance of nature and recreation in their respective countries. Works citedThe Umbrellas. . 2013. Web. September 10, 2014.
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