We have now seen many things wrapped in plastic: bird’s beaks in city dumps, trash left at the curb, groceries, “The Reichstag.”
Basically this is now old hat, for so many things have been wrapped in anti-environmental plastic. If we wrap one river in plastic, why not all? If we wrapped the Colorado River in plastic both underwater and above in a cocoon for its entire length we would have much less evaporation and could deliver more water to swimming pools in Los Angeles, and ever burgeoning golf courses along the way.
If art is in the eye of the beholder, this is one beholder who doesn’t see the river wrapped in plastic as art, but more a source of inconvenience and plastic pollution.
If the folks putting up the $58 million or so would instead feed the hungry, home the homeless, and medicate those without medical care, this would go a ways in alleviating suffering. At this economic nadir it seems that we might postpone plastic playthings.
If this is really great art, we can mothball the environmental impact statement; and after the economy recovers, or in the next century or two, surely this will be recognized as great art, and it can be done then. Though, someone will undoubtedly want another environmental impact study (you can never have enough of those).
While I was working in a private office in Contra Costa County California, a quite young thing came to see me, and was shocked and dismayed, and couldn’t believe that she tested pregnant, because she told me her boyfriend “had used saran wrap and a rubber band.” So, it would seem anything can be wrapped in plastic, and perhaps that makes it an “objet d’art” in the eyes of some.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the “Wrap Artists,” shouldn’t mind if their project is completed long after they are gone, since this won’t diminish their greatness, but only be an economic and present popularity inconvenience.
I think the Arkansas River in Colorado is a work of art already, and would like it to stay as it is.
Delmar H. Knudson lives in Denver. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
