Media Contacts:
Gabriel Riera: 305.375.1706
griera@miamidade.gov

MAM Is Back In The Pink With A Celebration Of Artist Christo And Miami’s Surrounded Islands Project  

Christo and Jean-Claude, the artists who created Miami’s surrounded pink islands in Biscayne Bay, are preparing to realize a long awaited project in New York’s Central Park this February. In conjunction with the New York project, Miami Art Museum is exhibiting a large-scale Christo drawing from the holdings of its permanent collection, titled The Gates, Project for Central Park, New York City. The drawing will be on view at MAM through March 6.

In addition to celebrating the realization of the project in New York, MAM will look back on Surrounded Islands, the project Christo created for Miami in the 1980s, with a Pink JAM at MAM on Thursday, February 17. The Pink JAM will include a special screening of the Surrounded Islands video produced during the project. MAM will be back in the pink, with pink cocktails and hors d’œuvres . Visitors who wear pink that evening will be admitted free of charge.

The artists’ installations often feature fabric that is sometimes wrapped around existing structures or used to create large-scale, temporary environments. In 1983, the husband and wife collaborators surrounded 11 islands in Miami’s Biscayne Bay with pink fabric that floated on the surface of the water. The art installation received world-wide attention and remains an iconic moment in Miami’s history.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude finance their projects through the sale of preparatory drawings and collages, such as the work now on view at MAM which consists of drawings, photographs and an aerial map of Central Park. The valuable work was donated to Miami Art Museum by Betty, Kate and Joe Fleming in 1996 when MAM first began its permanent collection. Joseph Fleming was one of the lead attorney’s who helped Christo obtain the permits and permissions to implement the Surrounded Islands project.

The Gates is a widely anticipated outdoor work of art for New York City originally proposed in 1979. The Gates will consist of saffron-colored fabric panels suspended from the horizontal tops of over 7,500 sixteen-foot-tall vinyl gates, positioned at regular intervals throughout 23 miles of walkways lacing in and around Central Park. The installation will be on view for sixteen days, from February 12 to February 28, 2005.

Surrounded Islands Background Information :  

On May 7, 1983 the installation of Surrounded Islands was completed. In Biscayne Bay, between the city of Miami, North Miami, the Village of Miami Shores and Miami Beach, 11 of the islands situated in the area of Bakers Haulover Cut, Broad Causeway, 79th Street Causeway, Julia Tuttle Causeway, and Venetian Causeway were surrounded with 603,850 square meters (6.5 million square feet) of pink woven polypropylene fabric covering the surface of the water, floating and extending out 61 meters (200 feet) from each island into the Bay. The fabric was sewn into 79 patterns to follow the contours of the 11 islands.

For 2 weeks Surrounded Islands spreading over 11.3 kilometers (7 miles) was seen, approached and enjoyed by the public, from the causeways, the land, the water and the air. The luminous pink color of the shiny fabric was in harmony with the tropical vegetation of the uninhabited verdant island, the light of the Miami sky and the colors of the shallow waters of Biscayne Bay.

Since April 1981, attorneys Joseph Z. Fleming, Joseph W. Landers, marine biologist Dr. Anitra Thorhaug, ornithologists Dr. Oscar Owre and Meri Cummings, mammal expert Dr. Daniel Odell, marine engineer John Michel, 4 consulting engineers, and builder-contractor, Ted Dougherty of A & H Builders,Inc. had been working on the preparation of the Surrounded Islands. The marine and land crews picked up debris from the eleven islands, putting refuse in bags and carting it away after they had removed some forty tons of varied garbage: refrigerator doors, tires,kitchen sinks, mattresses and an abandoned boat.

Permits were obtained from the following governmental agencies: The Governor of Florida and the Cabinet; the Dade County Commission; the Department of Environmental Regulation; the City of Miami Commission; the City of North Miami; the Village of Miami Shores; the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; the Dade County Department of Environmental Resources Management.

From November 1982 until April 1983, 6,500,000 square feet of woven polypropylene fabric were sewn at the rented Hialeah factory, into 79 different patterns to follow the contours of the 11 islands. A flotation strip was sewn in each seam. At the Opa Locka Blimp Hangar, the sewn sections were accordion folded to ease the unfurling on the water.

The outer edge of the floating fabric was attached to a 30.5 centimeter (12 inch) diameter octagonal boom, in sections, of the same color as the fabric. The boom was connected to the radial anchor lines which extended from the anchors at the island to the 610 specially made anchors, spaced at 15.3 meter (50 foot) intervals, 76 meters (250 feet) beyond the perimeter of each island, driven into the limestone at the bottom of the Bay. Earth anchors were driven into the land, near the foot of the trees, to secure the inland edge of the fabric, covering the surface of the beach and disappearing under the vegetation.

The floating rafts of fabric and booms, varying from 3.7 to 6.7 meters (12 to 22 feet) in width and from 122 to 183 meters (400 to 600 feet) in length were towed through the Bay to each island. There were 11 islands, but on two occasions, two islands were surrounded together as one configuration.

As with Christo and Jeanne-Claude's previous art projects, Surrounded Islands was entirely financed by the artists, through the sale by C.V.J. Corporation (Jeanne-Claude Christo-Javacheff, President) of the preparatory pastel and charcoal drawings, collages, lithographs and early works.

On May 4, 1983, out of a total work force of 430, the unfurling crew began to blossom the pink fabric. Surrounded Islands was tended day and night by 120 monitors in inflatable boats.

Surrounded Islands was a work of art which underlined the various elements and ways in which the people of Miami live, between land and water.

PROGRAMMING FOR ADULTS  

JAM @ MAM – Happy Hour with an Artful Twist

Third Thursdays 5-8:30pm
Music, cocktails, hors d’oeuvres
MAM members free; non-members $5
February 17

Accredited by the American Association of Art Museums, Miami Art Museum is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts; with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, the Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners.

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02/01/25/05

Press Contact: Gabriel Riera 305.375.1706 or griera@miamidade.gov

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