Wrapped Coast included one million square feet of fabric and 35 miles of rope shrouding a 1.5 mile long section of the Australian coastline.
Christo Vladimirov Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude, were a married couple, born on the same day, June 13, 1935. In March 1958, Christo arrived in Paris, where he met Jeanne-Claude for the very first time in early October. They became lovers creating environmental works of art together and started wrapping objects. They had the habit of flying in separate planes in case one crashed, the other could continue their work.
In 1975, Christo and Jeanne-Claude conceived the idea of wrapping the Pont-Neuf in Paris and completed the construction ten years later, wrapping the oldest bridge of the French capital. Their work also includes the wrapping of the Reichstag in Berlin, completed in June, 1995 by a work force of 90 professional climbers and 120 installation workers, revealing the essence of the Reichstag. The imposing structure remained wrapped for a period of two weeks and all materials were recycled.
Their impressive work has often been controversial due to the large-scale environmental art. However Christo and Jeanne-Claude have always replied that the purpose of their art was simply to provoke joy and beauty. Christo said: "I am an artist, and I have to have courage. Do you know that I don't have any artworks that exist? They all go away when they're finished. Only the preparatory drawings, and collages are left, giving my works an almost legendary character. I think it takes much greater courage to create things to be gone than to create things that will remain."
In 1969, in order to create new ways of seeing familiar landscapes, the couple wrapped the coast of Little Bay, property of Prince Henry Hospital, in Southeast Sydney, Australia on invitation by Australian collector John Kaldor. The South Pacific Ocean shore wrapped area included one million square feet (92,900 square meters) of fabric and 35 miles (56.3 kilometers) of rope shrouding a 1.5 mile (2.4 kilometer) long section of the Australian coastline. 100 workers, 15 professional mountain climbers and 11 volunteers devoted 17,000 manpower hours to the project over a period of four weeks. They all wrapped two and a half kilometers of coast and cliffs up to 26 metres high. "The coast remained wrapped for a period of ten weeks from October 28, 1969. Then all materials were removed and recycled and the site was returned to its original condition."
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