Umbrellas

Albert Maysles, Henry Corra, Grahame Weinbren – 1994 – USA

Umbrellas is the fifth of six films that Albert Maysles made about the great landscape artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude.  The Umbrellas project, completed in 1991, is one of the pair’s most famous works, largely because it’s considerable media exposure, and the involvement of large groups of volunteers, brought the artists’ work to the attention of a whole new generation in the 90s.  The temporary display involved the setting up of thousands of large umbrellas over huge stretches of semi-populated country.  It also notably spanned two continents, with blue umbrellas erected in Ibaraki, Japan and yellow ones in California in the USA.  If you’ve seen any of the other Maysles-Christo documentaries, you’ll recognize familiar scenes of the artists patiently dealing with bureaucratic red tape and making proud statements in front of news cameras.  Christo and Jeanne-Claude were always adamant that they had no social or philosophical agenda in mind when they began their projects.  All that mattered was their desire to see their ideas brought to fruition.  And if the public took pleasure in their work too, all the better.  One of my favorite recurring moments in many of this series are the many times when formerly indifferent or even hostile individuals soften upon seeing the sheer scope of Christo’s vision.  Their reactions are frequently irrational; reacting with childlike awe and commenting, often emotionally, about the work’s beauty.  It’s a communal form of art that is not possible, of course, with permanent museum fixtures.  Christo’s installations, by being so short-lived, take on a fragility and immediacy that make them special.  Especially striking in Umbrellas – more than in the other films – is the struggle with nature that Christo risks with each endeavor.  Tragically, the general good will that this project enjoyed was spoiled by two accidents, both caused by weather, that resulted in the deaths of a spectator in California and a worker in Ibaraki.  Both regions are so known for their vulnerability to natural disasters; one has to wonder if this was a factor in their selection by Christo in the first place.  Umbrellas – Christo’s project and Maysles’ film – makes us mindful of mankind’s weakness before nature and the brave yet mad ambition that fuels the artistic quest.