022705

Open season on The Gates

There’s been more blaze orange in Central Park these last few weeks than I’ve ever seen in Wisconsin during deer hunting season. A couple of famous artists payed the city of New York several million dollars to create more than a thousand blaze orange — excuse me — “saffron” colored gates throughout Central Park.

The exhibition has been up for a while. Last time I went to go see them it started to rain, but I made it up town yesterday and took a few pictures. There certainly are a lot of them. Each gate is made of a square metal framework and has a piece of matching canvas hanging down from the top, draping over the path below. They call it Saffron. I call it Blaze Orange. You say Tom-ay-to I say Tom-ah-to.

I’m no expert on art, and I found myself saying “I don’t get it” several times on my walk through the park. But they do look kinda pretty in a lawn-ornament kind of way, especially when you walk through a bunch of them all in a row. Everything takes on an orange tint. It’s like looking through and amber-tinted paintball mask.

For a wierd artsy projects it’s drawn a lot of visitors to the park. Even the First Lady was up there when the exhibit first opened. And when it snowed a week later people went up to see it again because of the change of scenery.

They say Central Park is New York’s backyard. I’d get a little angry if someone, artist or not, put up blaze orange gates all over my back yard. But they do look nice in the right kind of light and they’re only temporary. The exhibit closes in a few days, but it will take a while to remove all the gates. Maybe I’ll go up and shoot some more pictures if the weather is nice.