Islands

I first learned of conceptual artist Christo from a photo that Annie Leibovitz took of him, showing him wrapped in plastic. I really began to take an interest in him in eleventh grade when the language arts class focused on his projects that he carried out with his longtime partner Jeanne-Claude. I even dressed as him for Halloween that year!

Anyway, the Maysles brothers' documentary "Islands" focuses on a project that Christo and Jeanne-Claude did in southern Florida: they wrapped islands in plastic. A large portion of the documentary looks at how they had to get permission from the local government to do this. I don't know how long it took to get permission or to set up the project, but it was quite an impressive show. I think that it's safe to say that we won't see another artist pair like these two again in our lifetimes. We're lucky to have lived when they did. In the meantime, definitely check out the documentary.