Christo

Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf

The authenticity of this work has kindly been confirmed by Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Beginning with oil barrels in 1958 before moving to tin cans, packages and entire buildings, Christo and Jean Claude have wrapped themselves an arresting bundle of work unlike any other in the history of art. Using everyday cord and fabric to transform familiar objects into ambivalent and unrecognisable masses, their work raises doubts about function and identity and questions the relationship of art to the urban and natural environments.

A characteristic of Christo’s early work is its materiality. The objects share the same actual reality as they do in everyday life. A wrapped typewriter, for example, is precisely that – a typewriter shrouded in polyethylene. The Packages however are more complex. On the one hand they exist as ordinary objects occupying their normal space and function, but on the other they are distanced and made inaccessible through the act of wrapping. In obscuring the identity of the contained packages, a partial transformation occurs whereby ordinary found materials represent both themselves as well as assuming new meanings.

Wrapping has many diverse connotations ranging from clothing and gifts to preservation, censorship and concealment. In today's media driven, materialistic age where the package has become the product, more than ever, Christo’s Packages represent the antithesis of today’s streamlined industrial packaging and provide a profound comment on frequently unfulfilled expectations of consumerism.