A letter from University Art Gallery Director Jennifer Bethke that describes the exhibition she curated, “Running Fence at 45 years”, is the first thing situated on the walls of SSU’s Library Art Gallery. The exhibition, on display now through Oct. 10, celebrates the 45th anniversary of artists Christo and Jean-Claude’s project, “Running Fence”. 

Inside the Library Art Gallery, quiet permeated the space. Framed photographs of the project lined the walls, and real pieces from the installation were displayed in shadow boxes in the middle of the gallery space. The original documentary on “Running Fence” played on a constant loop, with space for visitors to take a seat and learn more about the piece. A collection of Post-It notes with the thoughts of visitors was stuck to the wall, situated right beside the screen. 

“The exhibition contains photographs, a video which documented the project, ephemera related to ‘Running Fence’ including a piece of the Fence, work shirts that were worn during the installation of the Fence, and the original advertisement looking to hire workers to install the Fence, as well as a piece of the Fence itself,” wrote Exhibitions Coordinator of the University Art Gallery, Carla Stone, in an email.

Forty-five years ago this month, the “Running Fence” installation, by husband and wife team Christo and Jean-Claude, went up in Sonoma and Marin counties. A project that took four years to come to fruition was on display for only two weeks, with 2,050 panels of white nylon fabric stretched across 24.5 miles from Cotati to Bodega Bay.

The photographs on display show the massive extent of the Fence. They featured the Fence stretched out over open fields, billowing in the fog, and its final portion running into the ocean.

“The photography and photographers are just amazing… The light and the way light is reflected [in the photos] is just great. The whole concept is interesting [and] the activism that came out is interesting too,” said Library Services Specialist Jayelene Lyons.

The artists experienced many challenges; most came from the vast amount of land that the fence covered, and the many landowners that needed to get on board, 59 of them in all. The artists attended over a dozen board meetings with community members and made a few appearances in California’s Superior Court. They also completed a 450-page Environmental Impact Report.

“This is right at the moment when we see environmentalism around preserving open space in Sonoma and Marin counties. Interestingly, not all environmentalists at the time were enthusiastic about this project. They actually felt that it was an encroachment on the land. Eventually ‘Running Fence’ came to be celebrated as a project that really thought about open space and preserving the rural character of these two counties,” said Bethke. 

The project pushed not only environmental boundaries but societal ones as well. 

“Of course we think of fences as dividing people… but ‘Fence’ had this opposite effect of bringing people together, in particular, the 59 ranchers…. These weren’t folks who normally would’ve been interested [in] or excited about what was very experimental, cutting edge art at the time, but they wound up really getting on board, supporting the project, and being some of its biggest advocates. That to me is really fascinating; the ways in which these big projects tend to shift societal dynamics,” continued Bethke.

On the Post-It note wall towards the end of the exhibition, one comment stood out among the rest, from an SSU student who had a hand in putting the exhibit together.

“I wish I was alive for this project, I feel blessed to be able to install and view a secondary experience of ‘Running Fence’,” wrote Gallery Intern and senior at SSU, Evelynn Harra. 

“This collaborative exercise in the gallery space takes the ‘Running Fence’ project and elaborates on [it]. During the construction of ‘Running Fence’, they documented their journey through film and photography. [That] is the reason… ‘Running Fence’ can have such a visceral experience in an art gallery setting. The public opinion on ‘Running Fence’ [was] documented… thoroughly… Now our opinions about the project are being recorded through Post-It notes. I think it’s all very meta,” wrote Harra in an email. 

The main University Art Gallery is currently undergoing construction, hence the “Running Fence” exhibition being featured in the Library Art Gallery.

“We hope to be back at our regular location, the University Art Gallery in the Art building, for our next exhibition in November,” wrote Stone.