You may be familiar with a series of artworks which are usually said to be by Christo, although in fact they're by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Their early works involved wrapping things up - starting with smaller things and going on to very large things. Here's one they did in Spoleto in 1968. It's called Wrapped Fountain.
I thought of them this week when my kitchen was wrapped. I was having part of it sprayed to give it a nice new surface, and this involved covering most of it in plastic for a few days. The effect was what I think Christo and Jeanne-Claude might be after: it turned the utterly familiar into something strange and mysterious and oddly beautiful.
Because it was wrapped, I couldn't work in it. Couldn't cook, couldn't clean, couldn't wash dishes. We ate takeaways - Chinese, Indian, cooked chook, smoked fish pie from the Gipp St deli. It felt like being on holiday.
I do like cooking. What I don't like is having to do the thinking and shopping and cooking and washing up all the time. Especially the washing up (even though we have a dishwasher). So this enforced break was remarkably refreshing. And when it ended today I had the pleasure of rearranging all the stuff I usually keep on the bench and the deep windowsill.
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