Christo (July)

Christo is unforthcoming about his plan, known since July, to gag, bind and cage all public statues in Melbourne. Even the De Kooning and Robertson-Swann’s ‘Vault’ will be tied up in orange plastic and locked behind bars. Jeanne-Claude had little to say at the press conference other than deride the small-mindedness of municipal councils who asked what’s the point and who pays the bill. In a country where you may be silenced and imprisoned for reporting on government cruelty, such artwork serves a political purpose, one critic said, but Christo remains unforthcoming. Red tape may tie up the project indefinitely.