Julie Rafalski
Wrapping
Christo & Jeanne-Claude Purple Store Front
I recently came across a piece by Christo & Jeanne -Claude: Purple Store Front. It looks like a stage set of a store the inside display window was "wrapped" and made inaccessible. It made me think of one of my earliest memories of store and the phenomenon of wrapping items.
Food was wrapped in newspapers in the late 80s in Communist Poland. I remember raw wet meat being wrapped in newspapers. There was usually a pile of blank greyish paper in small grocery shops where cheese and cold meat were packed (plastic wrap was not accessible then).
Wrapping of objects is an interesting strategy: the wrapped object doesn't disappear entirely as it retains some of its original shape and size, yet in some ways it does disappear.
The wrapping of gifts in coloured paper, buildings in plastic sheeting attached to scaffolding, rosebushes in hay against the winter frost, food in plastic.
Wrapping clumsily, quickly, for rudimentary protection. Not tailoring, just wrapping temporarily.
Wrapping with cloth, burlap, plastic, vinyl and wrapping with only a thin layer between inside and outside.
Wrapping made out of other smaller objects or made out of architectural elements.
Christo & Jeanne-Claude Wrapped Book