In May 1983, renowned artists Christo (b. 1935, Gabrovo, Bulgaria; lives in New York) and Jeanne-Claude (b. 1935, Casablanca, Morocco; d. 2009, New York) encircled 11 verdant manmade islands in Miami’s Biscayne Bay with 6.5 million square feet of pink woven polypropylene fabric. For just under two weeks, the results harmonized with water, sky, and foliage, creating a vivid composition in blue, green, pink, and turquoise. Surrounded Islands galvanized Miami’s civic and social forces while prompting an enthralled community to come together in celebration of the city’s natural beauty. Despite its short duration, the project left an indelible imprint on Miami’s cultural history, marking the rebirth of the city’s international profile while anticipating its rise as a hub for contemporary art.
This presentation commemorates the 35th anniversary of Surrounded Islands—a milestone that coincides with the founding of PAMM’s predecessor institutions, the Center for the Fine Arts and Miami Art Museum. The exhibition toured seven European countries and Japan between 1984 and 1991; it is presented here at PAMM for the first time in the United States. With sweeping breadth and depth, the installation chronicles the exhilarating journey the artists traversed over the course of more than three years—from the project’s early proposal stages through its spectacular completion— overcoming formidable obstacles in the process of realizing their epic vision.
1980
October 7–10: Christo and Jeanne-Claude are invited by their longtime friend Jan van der Marck, director of Miami’s Center for the Fine Arts (Pérez Art Museum Miami’s predecessor institution), to participate in the New World Festival of the Arts scheduled for June 1982.
November 19: Van der Marck, hoping to spark the artists’ interest in developing an artwork for Miami, visits them in New York and persuades them to take a two-day trip to Florida.
December 27–28: Christo and Jeanne-Claude visit Miami. Beth Dunlop, architecture critic for the Miami Herald, drives them around the city, pointing out architectural landmarks. As Christo and Jeanne-Claude traverse the causeways that span Biscayne Bay, they become attracted to the numerous artificial islands, formed of dredged material when the Intracoastal Waterway was constructed in the 1920s. The “spoil islands” exist in a linear configuration along a north-south axis on the western side of Biscayne Bay, close to the city of Miami. At first, Christo and Jeanne-Claude are mainly interested in the southern islands, but they soon realize that the islands in the northern part of the bay are closer to apartment buildings and consequently visible to more people. The actual project finally incorporates 11 of the islands.
1981
January 24: Christo and Jeanne-Claude telephone Van der Marck from New York to say they will be glad to do a project in Miami and that details will follow.
February 27: Christo and Jeanne-Claude fly to Miami, bringing with them Christo’s first sketches for Surrounded Islands. They are accompanied by photographer Wolfgang Volz, who takes aerial photographs of Biscayne Bay. From the outset, Christo and Jeanne-Claude want to surround several of the islands with a floating fabric.
March 6: Boston engineer Dimiter S. Zagoroff, who has collaborated on several Christo and Jeanne-Claude projects since 1968, comes to New York to work on the preliminary engineering.
March 17: Christo and Jeanne-Claude consult Theodore L. Dougherty, president of A & H Builders, Inc., the Broomfield, Colorado, construction firm that helped the artists create Valley Curtain (1970–72), Running Fence (1972–76), and Wrapped Walk Ways (1977–78); Dougherty agrees to take on the Surrounded Islands project.
April 1: The search begins for an appropriate fabric. Dougherty arrives in New York from Colorado to work on the engineering, then continues on to Florida.
April 3–11: Christo and Jeanne-Claude campaign in Miami. On April 6, they make a day trip to Tallahassee, the state capital, and meet with environmental attorney Joseph W. Landers Jr.; he agrees to be their legal counsel for all matters involving state and federal agencies. They also meet with Stephen Fox, director of the Division of Permitting in the Department of Environmental Regulation (DER); Marsha Orr, visual arts coordinator for the state; and George Firestone, Florida’s secretary of state.
April 7: Back in Miami, Christo and Jeanne-Claude meet with Tony Clemente, director of Miami-Dade County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management (DERM). Later that morning, Christo and Jeanne-Claude reveal their Surrounded Islands project at a Miami press conference organized by the New World Festival of the Arts.
April 9–10: Christo and Jeanne-Claude meet with officials of the US Army Corps of Engineers to discuss permit applications. At the DERM office, they meet with representatives of the Tropical Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, the League of Women Voters, the Izaak Walton League, and two Miami-Dade County planners. During these sessions, the names of marine biologist Anitra Thorhaug and oceanographic and engineering consultant John F. Michel are mentioned. About two weeks later, on April 29, Christo and Jeanne-Claude hire Thorhaug and Michel to conduct research for them.
April 10: The artists’ Running Fence documentation exhibition opens at the Metropolitan Museum and Art Center in Miami.
June 7–17: Dougherty, working in Miami with Michel and Miami-based marine contractor Ken Spates, conducts the first fabric and anchor tests at Island No. 11.
June 10: Thorhaug submits her “Report on Surrounded Islands Project,” detailing her laboratory and field experiments on the effect of light on Biscayne Bay’s seagrass and concluding that “this project will not be of impact to the seagrass communities in North Biscayne Bay during 21 days in June 1982.”
June 11: Christo and Jeanne-Claude fly to Miami for the first fabric test; it is a disaster. The next day they go to Tallahassee to meet with the complete permitting staff of Florida’s DER.
June 17: In Jacksonville, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, accompanied by Dougherty, Landers, Thorhaug, and Volz, meet with representatives of the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The proposed June 1982 completion date is scrapped because the US Army Corps of Engineers will not allow the project to be built during hurricane season, which usually occurs in southern Florida from June to September.
June 22: Michel produces technical drawings of the islands, showing the depth of the surrounding water.
July 2: Ornithologist Meri Cummings completes her census of the wading bird population on and around Biscayne Bay’s islands.
July 8: Landers files a joint permit application with the US Army Corps of Engineers and DER. The listed coapplicants are C.V.J. Corporation/Christo; George Firestone, Florida secretary of state; New World Festival, Inc.; and the Dade County Center for the Fine Arts.
July 14: Thorhaug hosts a dinner party in Miami in order to introduce Christo and Jeanne-Claude to her colleagues. The film Christo’s Valley Curtain (1974) by Albert and David Maysles and Ellen Giffard is screened, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude describe the Surrounded Islands project. At the party, the artists meet Miami attorney Joseph Z. Fleming.
July 17: A permit application is filed with Miami-Dade County.
July 20: Christo and Jeanne-Claude retain Fleming to represent them, based on the recommendation of Landers.
July 24: Dougherty reports that an American-made fabric that is close to the necessary specifications will cost 54 cents per square yard, or $300,000 for 5 million square feet, but it will have to be tested to see if it floats and is colorfast. Even though an appropriate fabric has not yet been found, Dougherty looks for a Miami factory to do the sewing.
September 27–November 14: The first exhibition related to the project, Christo: Surrounded Islands, Project for Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, is held at the Juda Rowan Gallery in London.
October 29: Florida’s DER makes its own field inspections to study the effects of fabric on seagrass. On November 13, DERM reports the negligible effect of floating fabric on seagrass.
1982
February 7–10: Christo and Jeanne-Claude and their collaborators conduct a prototype test of 60,000 square feet of Japanese fabric, representing 1 percent of the project on a one-to-one scale, near the home of Joan and Roger Sonnabend in Tavernier, Key Largo.
February 11: Christo and Jeanne-Claude and Fleming have breakfast with Miami-Dade County commissioner Ruth Shack. They meet with Maurice Ferré, mayor of the City of Miami, at his office. They also meet Margarita Cano and Barbara Young, the art services administrators at the Miami-Dade Public Library System.
March 9: The tentative completion date of Surrounded Islands is postponed to March 1983.
April 17–19: Christo and Jeanne-Claude charter a fishing boat, the Sea Angel, to survey the islands in Biscayne Bay with Dougherty, Michel, Volz, and a small crew. After anchoring, because of shallow water, they reach the individual islands by dinghy.
June 4: Surrounded Islands, Project for Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, Documentation Exhibition, organized by Cano and Young, opens at the Miami-Dade Public Library.
June 23–25: A second testing of Japanese and American fabrics is conducted near the Sonnabend home in Key Largo.
June 29: At a Tallahassee public hearing before Florida Governor Robert Graham and his cabinet, Christo and Jeanne-Claude receive permission to rent for two weeks the submerged lands around the 11 islands in Biscayne Bay for $12,827.08.
July 19: J. F. Adolff AG in Backnang, Germany, agrees to produce a relatively small order of woven polypropylene for another fabric test.
July 20: The Miami-Dade County commissioners hold a stormy public hearing, but finally vote eight to one in favor of granting a permit for the project. Upon request, Christo agrees to donate $100,000 worth of his artworks to Miami-Dade County for the Biscayne Bay Preservation Fund.
July 21: A DER-organized public hearing—the only public hearing at the state level in Miami—is held at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami.
July 22: In Miami, at a public hearing before the mayor and the city commissioners, Christo agrees to give a requested $50,000 donation in artworks; the permit to build Surrounded Islands is granted by unanimous vote.
July 29: Planning and zoning meeting at the Village of Miami Shores
August 3: Fleming presents the Surrounded Islands case before the Miami Shores Village Council, which has jurisdiction over Islands No. 9 and No. 10.
August 17–18: All the engineers meet for think tank sessions at Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s home in New York. They put together all the knowledge they have acquired as a result of their previous projects and various tests. This leads to a total redesign of virtually every structural aspect of Surrounded Islands while complying with all the permits.
August 27: The DER issues a permit for the project—printed on pink paper.
September 29: At SeaWorld in Orlando, at the request of the US Army Corps of Engineers, the manatee tank is covered with pink fabric so that marine biologist Daniel Odell may study the reactions of the five marine mammals within.
September 29: Dougherty moves to Florida, remaining there until the project is completed, removed, and the materials industrially recycled in July 1983.
October 7: A test of the German-made Adolff fabric in Key Largo reveals that its density and colorfastness are satisfactory.
October 9–30: Cano and Young conduct another test of the fabric in salt water and sun on the roof of the Miami-Dade Public Library.
October 14: For $180,000, Christo and Jeanne-Claude purchase 6.5 million square feet of pink woven polypropylene fabric. October 22: The US Army Corps of Engineers gives the project its final permit.
Mid-October–March 1983: The Adolff plant in Germany weaves 6.5 million square feet of polypropylene.
November 2: Christo and Jeanne-Claude rent a warehouse in Hialeah for the cutting and sewing of the fabric.
November 20: The first 541,330 square feet of fabric are air-shipped to Miami.
November 26: For $16,000, Christo and Jeanne-Claude purchase from Adolff additional fabric for underlay, cocoon, and boom fabric.
December 1: The sewing begins: for five months, 45 workers cut, sew, fold, and place the fabric in special cocoons.
1983
January: A team of surveyors maps the actual locations of the bay and land anchors, which are installed by a follow-up crew.
January–April: Styrofoam beams for the booms are fabricated in southwest Miami.
February 25: Florida environmentalist Jack Kassewitz Jr. files a complaint in US District Court seeking a restraining order and injunction against Surrounded Islands on the grounds that the project constitutes a threat to fish, wildlife, and vegetation.
March 1: For $50,000 and a collage, Christo and JeanneClaude rent for four months a five-acre portion of the Interama Oleta River State Recreation Area, to be used for the construction and launching of the assembled 100-foot-long Styrofoam booms, as well as the fabric.
March 16–18: Kassewitz’s suit is settled. US District Court Judge James Lawrence King authorizes Kassewitz “to observe and monitor the progress” of the project. The agreement calls for a panel of scientists to monitor the area for two years after the project is completed and removed.
April 18: Christo and Jeanne-Claude settle in Miami for the duration of the project.
April 18–20: Cleanup crews remove 40 tons of garbage from the islands.
April 20: Jon Becker, in charge of all marine work, and his crew start installing navigation warning lights, which indicate to boaters the position of nearby underwater Styrofoam flotation devices.
April 26: After a court hearing, Judge King rejects Kassewitz’s attempts to prevent the project from surrounding Island No. 9.
April 27–29: Registration of nearly 500 workers takes place at the Pelican Harbor Yacht Club, followed by training at Interama.
April 29: The last of the 305 booms is placed in its boom sleeve.
April 30: Island captains and their crews locate and tag the land anchors.
May 1: All island crews are deployed to their designated locations to install radial lines and the underlay fabric.
May 2: The launching begins at Interama with two shifts of more than 120 workers carrying the boom-fabric packages from the staging area into Biscayne Bay, where boats tow the assemblies to their destinations. Towing of the fabric packages from Interama to the islands starts at 5:30am and continues with various teams working through the night and the following day.
May 4: Blossoming day: Island No. 14 —the smallest and northernmost of the islands in the project —is the only one to be finished this day.
May 7: Islands No. 9 and No. 10 are the last to be finished. By 2pm, all 11 islands are completed.
May 17–19: The project is removed. Except for the bay anchors, which are buried beneath Biscayne Bay in accordance with the permit, all components (fabric, Styrofoam, and cables) are removed entirely.
Biography
Christo (b. 1935, Gabrovo, Bulgaria; lives in New York) and Jeanne-Claude (b. 1935, Casablanca, Morocco; d. 2009, New York) are among the most celebrated artists of our time. Major outdoor projects include The London Mastaba, Serpentine Lake, Hyde Park, 2016–18; The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo, Italy, 2014–16; The Gates, Central Park, New York City, USA, 1979–2005; Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, Germany, 1971–95; The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris, France, 1975–85; Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972–76; and Wrapped Coast, Sydney, Australia, 1968–69. Exhibitions of the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude have been presented internationally at dozens of venues including, most recently, Serpentine Galleries, London; ING, Brussels, Belgium; Fondation Maeght, Saint Paul de Vence, France; and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla, California.
