Unnatural Nature

This project is entirely designed for that
specific landscape and nothing can be
transported. Nobody can buy the work,
nobody can own the work, and nobody
can charge tickets for the work. We do
not own the projects, they are beyond the
ownership of the artists because freedom
is the enemy of possession, that’s why
these projects do not stay. They are absolutely
related to artistic and aesthetic
freedom.
EL: Tell me about the early stages of the
Running Fence.
Christo: The idea for all our projects,
not only Running Fence, starts with
sketches. These were very clumsy drawings.
[Over time,] the project gets crystallized.
For Running Fence, we did
several life-size tests to see how it should
be built. We built a 200-300-foot fence in
Colorado near the Wyoming border, and
studied it to determine what kind of steel
cable to use, what kind of fabric, how to
sew the fabric. For all our projects we did
the same thing. A smaller one-to-one
scale model is the only way to finalize
and crystallize both aesthetics and engineering:
how the project will look, how it
will be built. From the earliest sketches
[in the first room of the exhibition] with
very heavy, clumsy poles to the end with
very elegant, aesthetically chosen pole
attachments and in-ground anchors and
arches when the wind is blowing. This is
why we don’t do the drawings in the studio
and try to apply our vision cosmetically.
The goal is to refine a very long
and very important process with myself,
Jeanne-Claude, and the engineers. It’s
always about aesthetics: finding the right
pole, going to the very slim pole from the
heavy wooden one. By testing anchors in
the ground we could see ribs in the fabric
when the wind is blowing; these ribs did
not exist in the early drawings. Each
panel of 60 feet has two ribs very precisely,
held by anchors attached to the
ground. In the first panel [we tested] the
fabric lays like nothing, with no dynamic.
[The final fabric was chosen] because we
had a life-size test. The three arches did
not come from imagination.
EL: You and Jeanne-Claude pride yourselves
on recycling, and the Running
Fence was the first major art project to
include an Environmental Impact
Report. Can you explain?
Christo: It’s common sense. The material
is extremely valuable and it’s only
used for two weeks. After two weeks it
has a valuable use. For the Running
Fence we went with a community, and
the landowners were eager to have the
poles, the cables, and the fabric for a
variety of uses. They used the posts for
building their own fences and to build
cattle guards. And of course they used
the fabric for their barns and the cable.
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