The Gates Redux, With Evidence

For once, I managed not to let a major event  in New York City go by without seeing it. Jen was up this weekend, for the first time in a while, and we decided to go see The Gates before they're taken down on Monday. We dawdled a bit on the way, and I had as much fun looking at furniture and walking up Columbus Avenue and having lunch with her as we did wandering through the Park snapping pics of large orange installations. They're most interesting to me when you're walking under a group of them that are close together, or when you can see them as a large pattern against the landscape. The frames are too square and unsculptural for me, and too static without the wind so they end up being a mix of prayer flag and tori gate without the virtues of either, and of course the color is reminiscent of Buddhist monks' saffron robes. They're cheery against a wintry landscape, but I can't say they moved me, but I figured since I was already using them in an essay that started out here, I'd better go see them so I could know what I was talking about. More pics at Flee's New York.