Title
Wrapped Coast, One Million Square Feet, Little Bay, Sydney, Australia
1969
Artists
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Details
- Other Title
- Wrapped Coast, Little Bay, Australia
- Date
- 1969
- Media category
- Photograph
- Materials used
- gelatin silver photograph
- Edition
- 18/30
- Dimensions
- 62.3 x 77.5 x 3.4 cm frame
- Signature & date
Signed l.r., black fibre-tipped pen "Christo...". Not dated.
- Credit
- Gift of Chandler Coventry 1972
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 13.1972
- Copyright
- © Christo 1969 Photo: Harry Shunk
- Artist information
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Christo
Works in the collection
- Artist information
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Jeanne-Claude
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Wrapped Coast, One Million Square Feet, Little Bay, Sydney, Australia 1968-69
Coordinator: John KaldorLittle Bay, property of Prince Henry Hospital, is located 14.5 kilometres, southeast of the centre of Sydney.
The South Pacific Ocean cliff-lined shore area that was wrapped is approximately 2.5 kilometres long, 46 to 244 metres wide, 26 metres high at the northern cliffs, and was at sea level at the southern sandy beach.
90,000 square metres (1 million square feet) of erosion-control fabric (synthetic woven fibre usually manufactured for agricultural purposes) were used for the wrapping. 56.3 kilometres of polypropylene rope, 1.5 centimetre diameter, tied the fabric to the rocks. Ramset guns fired 25,000 charges of fasteners, threaded studs and clips to secure the rope to the rocks.
Ninian Melville, a retired major in the Army Corps of Engineers, was in charge of the workers at the site.
17,000 manpower hours, over a period of four weeks, were expended by 15 professional mountain climbers, and over 100 workers: architecture and art students from the University of Sydney and East Sydney Technical College, as well as a number of Australian artists and teachers. All workers were paid, with the exception of 11 architecture students who refused.
The project was financed by Christo and Jeanne-Claude through the sale of Christo's original preparatory drawings, collages, scale models, early packages and wrapped objects of the 1950s and 1960s and lithographs.
The coast remained wrapped for a period of ten weeks from 28 October 1969. Then all materials were removed and recycled and the site was returned to its original condition.
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Exhibition history
Shown in 3 exhibitions
Ideas and Actions: Performance, Process and Documentation, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 29 Oct 1999–23 Jan 2000
John Kaldor Family Collection Artist Rooms #1 - Christo, Gosford Regional Gallery & Arts Centre, Gosford, 01 Feb 2013–01 Apr 2013
John Kaldor Family Collection Artist Rooms #1 - Christo, Glasshouse Regional Gallery, New South Wales, 04 Jul 2013–25 Aug 2013
John Kaldor Family Collection Artist Rooms #1 - Christo, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, Booragul, 13 Sep 2013–01 Dec 2013
John Kaldor Family Collection Artist Rooms #1 - Christo, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre & Liverpool Regional Museum, Casula, 09 Dec 2013–26 Jan 2014
Making art public: 50 years of Kaldor Public Art Projects, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 06 Sep 2019–16 Feb 2020
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Bibliography
Referenced in 5 publications
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Nicholas Baume (Editor), Christo. John Kaldor Art Project, 1990, 'Wrapped Coast - One Million Square Feet, Little Bay, Sydney, Australia, 1969', p120-139, Sydney, 1990, 120-121 (illus). This work is illustrated in the catalogue but was not in the exhibition.
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Sophie Forbat (Editor), 40 years: Kaldor Public Art Projects, Sydney, 2009, 56-57 (illus.). This work is illustrated in the catalogue but was not in the exhibition.
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Charles Green, The third hand: collaboration in art from conceptualism to postmodernism, 'Negotiated Identity: Christo and Jeanne-Claude', pg.125-137, Minneapolis, 2001, 124 (illus.), 127, 128, 130, 131, 135, 142, 154, 182.
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Jill Sykes, Look, 'Christo and Jeanne-Claude', pg.24-27, Sydney, Dec 2007-Jan 2008, 24 (illus.).
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Michael Wardell, Contemporary: Art Gallery of New South Wales Contemporary Collection, 'Ideas and actions', pg.60-107, Sydney, 2006, 62, 70 (illus.).
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