Wrapped Objects

by Michelle Maguire & Kelsey McClellan, 2025

This series of photos was inspired by the early work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, partners in art and in life, born on the same day. It started with small, ordinary things: bottles and cans laying around their studios, a telephone, a bouquet of flowers, first in Paris, then in SoHo, cloaking objects in canvas and tying them up, concealing containers and depriving them of their function, focusing on texture and form, calling attention to their beautiful silhouettes.

We dedicated time to inhabiting the spirit of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and it was a pleasure. Just as Jeanne-Claude rummaged through city streets the night before garbage day in search of complex contours to put under wraps, we scoured flea markets for objects with interesting profiles to dress up. Approaching the process with a concentration on color, material, and shape, we draped, we wrapped, we swaddled, all in pursuit of art coming from art. The result lies somewhere between a tribute, an homage, a nod, an interpretation.