20 years ago, New York’s Central Park turned orange with a now legendary installation titled ‘The Gates’. The site-specific installation by Christo and Jeanne-Claude featured 7,503 gates spanning 23 miles throughout the park, and attracted over four million visitors. Now, to mark its 20th anniversary, this saffron-coloured art returns, but this time on your phone.
‘The Gates’ returns in all its saffron glory to Central Park
Christo and Jeanne-Claude at The Gates, New York City, February 2005
With the help of augmented reality, ‘The Gates’ by Bulgarian artist Christo Yavacheff and French artist Jeanne-Claude makes its digital return to Central Park where visitors can view its billowing saffron fabric on their smartphones, located between East 72nd Street and Cherry Hill.
The original art installation made its debut on 12 February 2005, and lined Central Park’s footpaths with over 7000 16-foot-tall orange gates. The somewhat simple concept captivated the public with its warming colour palette during New York's darker months – and darker times in history – after the 9/11 attacks.
The bright orange fabric which caught the wind and created a balloon-like tunnel, sparked joy and happiness within the icy park, and acted as a symbol of hope to many. Now, throughout the park there are various kiosks with QR-codes which allow visitors to scan with their phones and see ‘The Gates’ as it was 20 years ago.
To further celebrate the installation’s anniversary, the Shed at Hudson Yards will display a retrospective titled ‘Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates and Unrealized Projects for New York City’ which focuses on the design process and installation of ‘The Gates’, which also included photographs, drawings and earlier design concepts.
‘Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates and Unrealized Projects for New York City’ is on display at The Shed until 23 March 2025 theshed.org christojeanneclaude.net
-
We take the new Jaecoo 7 SUV along South Africa’s famous Garden RouteEndurance, efficiency and economic soft power, Wallpaper* experiences China’s new SUV challenger on a gentle safari across South Africa
-
Join our world tour of contemporary homes across five continentsWe take a world tour of contemporary homes, exploring case studies of how we live; we make five stops across five continents
-
'Imagine if new technologies were rooted in empathy': women, computing and radical software in Vienna'Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991' doesn’t pretend to portray the totality of tech in art, instead taking the specific 31-year period of the title to shed light upon 48 women artists who engaged critically with computation
-
‘Psychedelic art palace’ Meow Wolf is coming to New YorkThe ultimate immersive exhibition, which combines art and theatre in its surreal shows, is opening a seventh outpost in The Seaport neighbourhood
-
Wim Wenders’ photographs of moody Americana capture the themes in the director’s iconic films'Driving without a destination is my greatest passion,' says Wenders. whose new exhibition has opened in New York’s Howard Greenberg Gallery
-
Miami’s new Museum of Sex is a beacon of open discourseThe Miami outpost of the cult New York destination opened last year, and continues its legacy of presenting and celebrating human sexuality
-
Inside Luna Luna: the amusement park designed by artists lands in New York‘Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy’ – featuring rides by Basquiat, Lichtenstein, Hockney, Haring, and Dalí – has opened at The Shed
-
Henni Alftan’s paintings frame everyday moments in cinematic renditionsConcurrent exhibitions in New York and Shanghai celebrate the mesmerising mystery in Henni Alftan’s paintings
-
Brutalism in film: the beautiful house that forms the backdrop to The Room Next DoorThe Room Next Door's production designer discusses mood-boarding and scene-setting for a moving film about friendship, fragility and the final curtain
-
'There’s an anxiety under all of it': Violet Dennison in New YorkViolet Dennison debuts abstract paintings with new show 'Damaged Self' at Tara Downs Gallery
-
Mark Armijo McKnight’s bodily landscapes capture the tactile serenity of the American WestThe artist’s new exhibition at the Whitney Museum, which is organised by the museum curator Drew Sawyer, offers a succinct window into his contemplative suggestion of queering a landscape
