More Webs and Synchronicity

Cleaning up my email [sorry if I owe you, I am really far behind but I'm getting there....] I found these wonderful photos a friend had sent of the unexpected side-effect of the flooding in parts of Pakistan. Millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters. Because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water has taken so long to recede, many trees have become cocooned in spiders webs. People in this part of Sindh have never seen this phenomenon before but they also report that there are now far fewer mosquitoes than they would expect, given the amount of stagnant, standing water that is around. It is thought that the mosquitos are getting caught in the spiders web thus reducing the risk of malaria, which would be one blessing for the people of Sindh, facing so many other hardships after the floods. As I looked with awe at these photos I thought of the the garden last week festooned with spider webs and wonderful installation of Jean-Claude and Christo, Wrapped Trees. Created in 1998, more than three decades after Christo and Jeanne-Claude first proposed wrapping live trees, this project was scheduled for autumn, when leafless branches would enhance the elegiac nature of the work. A shimmering veil-like woven polyester (used in Japan to protect fragile trees from frost and snow) was selected to allow the trees to "breathe." On 13 November, the Christos and their team began the installation, which covered 178 trees (ranging in height from three to eighty-two feet) with 592,034 square feet of polyester secured with over 14 miles of rope. On view for three weeks, Wrapped Trees was extremely dynamic: varying silhouettes of trees moved in the wind with the skeletal framework of branches made visible when the translucent material was backlighted by the sun.

Top Left, In the garden last week, Top Right,  Sindh, Pakistan, 2011, Bottom Left, Wrapped Trees, Christ and Jeanne-Claude, 1998,  Bottom Right, Sindh, Pakistan , 2011