NIVAL Insights: Christo’s ‘Wrapped Walkways’ Across Three Archives
Documenting what might have been.
In 1977, internationally renowned artist, Christo, proposed an ambitious transformation of Dublin’s St. Stephen’s Green: a temporary installation that would see its walkways wrapped in fabric. Conceived as part of Rosc ’77, the project promised to momentarily alter how the public would encounter the park. Despite early momentum and great anticipation, the proposal was ultimately refused by the Office of Public Works (OPW), leaving the work unrealised.
What remains however is a rich archival trace of what might have been and the evolution of an artistic idea that became part of a National Collection. Materials here are drawn from three distinct collections held at NIVAL:
- the Dorothy Walker Archive
- the Rosc Files in the Ephemera Files Collection
- the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland (FNCI) Archive
Through correspondence, photographs, exhibition ephemera, press clippings, and acquisition records, these archives collectively document the course of Christo’s proposal for a physical intervention; from its initial spark and advocacy, to institutional hesitation, to its legacy as image and artefact.
Presented in chronological sequence these materials trace the timeline of the project, allowing the fascinating narrative of this unrealised work to emerge through preserved fragments.
From the Dorothy Walker Archive
27 February 1977
Letter from Dominique* to Dorothy Walker.
Dominique thinks Dorothy’s suggestion for Christo to “wrap the ghost of Nelson’s Pillar is simply great”, and tells her she must suggest it to him when he is in Dublin in March. Dominique says it would be very nice if Dorothy could take Christo around Dublin and suggest everything she can think of.
*Dominique Fourcade was a Juror for Rosc ’77
18 March 1977
Dorothy Walker meets with Paschal Scanlon, of the Office of Public Works (OPW) Parks Division, to discuss Christo’s proposed Rosc project for St. Stephen’s Green.
Christo pictured in Dublin, March 1977.
21 March 1977
Letter from Dorothy Walker to Paschal Scanlon of the Parks Division following up on their meeting with details of the project. Christo proposed to cover the paths of St. Stephen’s Green with a woven synthetic fabric. The fabric would be tied to the low railings edging the paths. They estimated installation at two days and would open on August 20th remaining until the end of October. Dorothy thanked Paschal for his positive and co-operative attitude to the project, noting that this very much impressed Christo.
25 March 1977
Letter from Christo’s wife and artistic partner, Jeanne-Claude, to Dorothy Walker, noting that Christo returned enthusiastic from Dublin. She provides details on their recent Running Fence (1976) installation and enclosed samples of synthetic fabric for Dorothy to source similar material for the St. Stephen’s Green project. She notes that the fabric does not absolutely have to be snow white, it could be off white, but the lighter the colour the better.
5 April 1977
Letter from Dorothy Walker to Jeanne-Claude Christo, confirming that a similar fabric exists that is used for making potato sacks. “Christo has picked something that relates very well to Ireland”. Dorothy confirms she will be sending dimensions of the paths with the fabric samples to Richard Wood of John A. Wood & Co in hopes they would finance the material.
undated, c. May 1977
Letter from Dorothy Walker to Brendan Gill at The New Yorker who had written about Christo’s Running Fence project. Dorothy hopes Brendan will come to Dublin for Rosc describing Christo’s plans as ‘quite sensational’. “You know Stephen’s Green, what Joyce called ‘Stephen’s my Green’ – well he is covering all the paths and walkways with a white silky woven material, so all the old biddies from Cuffe St. and York St., all the children, all the ducks and seagulls, will be walking on this white silky stuff. As you know, Stephen’s Green is the most popular and populous park in Dublin, always full of people, so it will have the maximum effect”.
1 June 1977
Minutes of a Rosc Executive Committee meeting show (point 2) that the Board of Works had postponed making a decision on whether to allow Christo to cover the paths of St. Stephen’s Green until they had received a submission from the Arts Council. Dorothy Walker enlisted external support from public bodies that were keen that Christo’s project should happen, including Bord Fáilte which believed the project would attract many visitors. “German art critic Petra Kiphoff told Christo that she is coming to Dublin especially to see his piece”. Dorothy was also still trying to secure private financing of the fabric “so that no-one would have the opportunity to complain about the waste of tax payers money”.
17 June 1977
Letter from E. Hyland of OPW’s National Parks and Monuments Branch to Dorothy Walker. They have given further consideration to Christo’s proposal “but the Commissioners regret that they cannot agree to the proposal”.
From the Rosc Files, Ephemera Files Collection
20 August 1977
Preparing Rosc ‘77
Caroline Walsh, The Irish Times
“The one stumbling block so far was when the Bulgarian-born artist, Christo, now living in the US, announced that his intention was to cover the pathways of Stephen’s Green with 4,000 metres of woven nylon fabric so that they would look like a flowing river. Right from the start he was probably aware that he would have trouble, to which he is no stranger. Recently when he produced a work consisting of a plastic fence that ran for 25 miles through the Californian countryside, he had to spend four years trying to sort out the legal tangles getting permission to go through people’s lands. However, he did not get that far here as the Board of Works forbade the whole enterprise while it was still only an idea. Now plans for what might have been are on show at the Municipal. There, Dubliners can observe for themselves how Mr. Christo had planned to transform their run-of-the-mill lives”.
22 August 1977
The challenges of Rosc ‘77
Irish Independent
“Christo’s wrapped walkways, if allowed in St. Stephen’s Green would have added a new dimension to the place and one would have given almost anything to have heard what the mothers and their prams would have thought of his concept”.
16 September 1977
Christo’s Plastic Plans
Kent Russell, HIBERNIA
“Out of all the Rosc fanfare, the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland (FNCI) have donated to the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery the Christo exhibit, bought for £4,000… His Rosc exhibit is a photomontage and a map of our St. Stephen’s Green. The exhibit reveals the project as envisaged by Christo; the paths of the Green were to be ‘wrapped’ in white opaque plastic. It is this set of proposals that hangs in Rosc and will soon belong to the nation. If we look at the concept behind Christo, it will reveal an interesting art movement. Unfortunately, his plans to wrap the Green flopped due to the objection that the walkways would become a hazard to public safety”.
“Secretary of the FNCI purchasing committee, Ciaran MacGonigal, explained that the Christo was felt to be of particular interest being one of the few and one of the more important exhibits with an Irish theme”.
“The worthiness of the St. Stephen’s Green purchase becomes apparent for at least one reason. Christo is a well-established ‘star’; he has made some attempt to localise his subject for his Rosc exhibit. Few artists of such international fame have created works which relate directly to Ireland. Beuys’ entry of the turf sandwich I think is both irreverent and irrelevant, however, Christo has chosen a landmark recognisable to all of us. A permanent symbol of our city, the ‘Green’ is wrapped like a Christmas present, as recognisable as his wrapped chairs, as recognisable as a twenty-first birthday present when we knew what it was anyway. A new discovery and thrill awaits our unwrapping of the Green’s paths. Certainly it is a fun idea, to be enjoyed: it’s removed from the pure throw away of Duchamp, for Christo wraps permanent things, eternal symbols like trees. Christo will survive the ages as fairly representative of our age. It is good to see that the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery has acquired yet another important name in its collection. It is important for us not to forget that the purpose of the gallery is to acquire an international collection of art. With current prices, it is an extremely difficult task. The Christo was an opportune, and by international standards, an inexpensive purchase”.
From the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland (FNCI) Archive
1 October 1977
Letter from FNCI Honorary Secretary, Ciaran MacGonigal, to Chairman of Dublin Corporation’s Cultural Committee, offering a work from the recent ROSC exhibition – No. 29 by Christo, a plan to wrap the footpaths in St. Stephen’s Green. He says the FNCI are offering the work “to assist the City Gallery acquire representative works by contemporary artists” and also to “mark the link between the Green which was in fact the principal chosen site by Sir Hugh Lane for his new Gallery”. MacGonigal asks that the Council assist with the purchase to the extent of £650. The FNCI felt that “as the work was costing them £3,900 that fair value was being given to the City, and indeed Ireland, since Christo is not already represented here”.
15 December 1977
Invoice for ‘Wrapped Walkways – a project for St. Stephen’s Green. Collage by Christo’.
The invoice for $6,187 US Dollars shows a discount of 10%.
Includes details for Rosc Administrator Mimi Behncke. Annotated with confirmation that a cheque for £3,282.22 Irish Punts was sent on 20th December 1977.
16 January 1978
Letter from Rosc Committee Member, Kenneth McQuillan, to Patrick Raftery of the FNCI acknowledging receipt of cheque for £3,282.22 for the purchase of ‘Wrapped Walkways’ a project for St. Stephen’s Green, Collage by Christo.
25 January 1978
Letter from Ethna Waldron, Curator of the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, to Ciaran MacGonigal of FNCI confirming “acceptance of their offer recommended on basis of payment of £650 towards the purchase price of £3,900”. Ethna Waldron thanks the Council of the Friends for “their valuable gift which is a most welcome acquisition as it is an important modern work by such an esteemed contemporary artist”.
Wrapped Walk Ways, Project for St Stephen’s Green Park, Dublin
1977, Christo (1935 – 2020).
Medium: Fabric, pencil, Photostat from photograph by Wolfgang Volz, charcoal, crayon, pastel, map and four black & white photographs by Wolfgang Volz.
Collage in two parts: each 71 x 56 cm.
Collection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Purchased by the Friends of the National Collections of Ireland and Dublin Corporation, 1978. © The Estate of Christo.
“In terms of prestige for Rosc ’77, the loss of the Christo installation was incalculable. Christo’s involvement was limited to exhibiting two montages of the wrapping proposal. What might have been a magnificent example of art-as-spectacle that would have raised Rosc 77 to a higher level, at no cost to Rosc, was reduced to the montages, and Dublin was denied a major Environmental work. In 1978, Christo undertook a similar project in Kansas City, Wrapped Walkways at Jacob Loose Park, in which 4.4 km of the park’s pathways were wrapped in yellow nylon fabric, apparently without incidence.”
Shortt, Peter. The Poetry of Vision : The ROSC Art Exhibitions, 1967-1988. Irish Academic Press, 2016. NIVAL Reference Library Collection, 707.409415 ROS
Materials from the Dorothy Walker Archive originally compiled as part of DOCUMENT! exhibition at NCAD Gallery, 2012. Presented here with additional materials compiled by Clare Lymer, Digital Collections Officer, NIVAL.
ExPLORE
- Dorothy Walker Archive
- Friends of the National Collections of Ireland Archive
- Rosc materials 1967-1988
- Rosc ’71