MARCH
13, 2005 --
The last of "The Gates" was dismantled shortly after 11. a.m. on March
11. (Possibly 11.11a.m.?)
It was taken down in the east side of Central park, not far from the statue of
Balto. The last dismantling did not attract the media. Only a few photographers
were
present -- not including LPR who had left -- to put quarters in a parking meter
on Madison Avenue at 72nd Street.
The work crew dismantled at a pace a bit
faster than LPR estimated. In return to the site, LPR got one of the earliest
photos, if not the first, of the park bereft of any element of "The Gates."
A few hours after all of "The Gates" was gone, LPR went to the command
center to photograph Vince and Jonita Davenport, the husband and wife team who
turned into temporary reality Christo and Jeanne-Claude's vision of "The
Gates" as work of art for Central Park.
Mr. Davenport, an engineer, was director of construction, and Mrs. Davenport
served as project coordinator. The Davenports, from Leavenworth, Washington,
have worked with Christo and Jeanne-Claude since 1989.
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Vince
and Jonita Davenport
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Vince
and Jonita Davenport
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Their attention
to detail -- and in the public interest -- is apparent from their
work on "The Gates." LPR understands that this extraordinary
couple plans to leave New York City in a few months to return home.
Not without an offer from the mayor to take senior posts in his administration,
LPR hopes.
For the record, Mr. Davenport confirmed to LPR that the actual number of gates
in "The Gates" was 7503.
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A
good-bye wave.
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Crew
coffee break.
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Remembering "The
Gates"
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"Today,
everything exists to end in a
photograph."
The
late Susan Sontag, from
On Photography, quoted in the January 24 issue of New York magazine
-- which also carried an article on "The Gates."
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One
of the last to go …
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Going …
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Gates
gone...
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...existing,
now, in photographs. (Photo shows Wollman Rink area of
Central Park.)
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Shana,
wondering where "The Gates" are. (Shana is
at a Wollman rink overlook in Central Park).
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Another
photo of the Wollman Rink area.
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Leaving
the park, March 11, LPR chatted with an east sider who
seemed rueful that he did not have his camera to photograph
the last of
"Ther Gates." He did tell LPR, however, that he went to every part
of Central Park to see "The Gates,"
visiting places in the park he had never been to.
Asked if he had taken any photographs, he replied immediately, "hundreds."
Given the estimate of some 4 million visitors to "The Gates," how
many millions of photographs permanently
record this temporary work of art?
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