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Somerville and New England History Collection
 
During the winter of 2005, as art lovers from all over the world
flocked to New York City to see Christo's Gates, a much smaller
but no less innovative work of environmental art seized the
imagination of Somerville, Massachusetts. At left is one small
part of The
Somerville Gates, an extensive, arresting opus that towered
over the floors of a Village Street residence. The Somerville
Gates was created by the artistic team Hargo and Edie (Edie
is pictured to the left--she's the cat, not the dog). The fame
of the Gates soon spread beyond Somerville. The New York Times
itself called the Somerville Gates "ominous" yet "ephemeral,"
full of "beauty and rhythm." Although some critics
considered the Gates a repetitive work, most viewers agreed
with the Times' assessment. The Somerville Gates was covered
by publications as far away as Germany and Colombia, much to
the delight of the artists--in spite of their protestations
that they create only for themselves. "When someone says,
'What a beautiful child!' the mother and father are very happy,
but everybody knows they didn't create that child so people
will enjoy it," Edie said in an interview with the Somerville
Arts Quarterly. "Each one of our projects is a child of
ours, which is kinda weird because, as you know, I'm a cat."
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