a thesaurus. one should lug this along when viewing the just unveiled installation art in central park by the conceptual artists couple Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude.
what it is basically are 7,500 of 16 foot tall gates meandering through the venerable communal lawn of new york. from each of these gates, a saffron pleated nylon swath bob and billow in the winter breeze.
from the M5 bus I was riding, the flume of skirted gates looked like a rabid tongue of kaingin brush fire licking raw the sparse winter undergrowth of the park.
surreal, dreamlike, fabulous. easily, these are the top modifiers that most of the park's weekend pedestrian traffic were jabbering about this surreal, dreamlike, fabulous art project.
insane and unnecessary, as well. I heard an incredulous matron exclaimed from behind me "why would anyone spend money on these?" some $20 million of insane and unnecessary money.
but as the new york times art critic michael kimmelman argues "we didn't need the gates. art is never necessary. it is merely indispensable."
can this type of indulgence (for lack of a better word and a substantive thesaurus) be conscionable back in cosmopolitan manila or much more in my tiny island, the last time I heard still floats quite well on typhoon prone cebu sea?
cut to scene. these saffron gates are magically teleported to thickety quezon city memorial circle. pan the camera to my peoples just flummoxed at these, these what? these improbably hard to reach laundry lines?
oh, but I could hear already the soaring adjectives, the substantives, heavy and grounded but never losing their droll character, that they would hang on to this putative post post-modern art installation.
sampayan ng mga higante (clothesline of giants), bimpo na trapal pa (face towel and tent all rolled into one), pamahid ng libag (dirt wiper) o panguhit ng arirat (toenail grit remover), pangkayod ng kukaribaku (sraper of grime that has since lichened under the breasts of a slob).