Christo and Jeanne-Claude were born on the same date. They first met in Paris in October 1958. Their works were credited to just “Christo” until 1994 when the outdoor works and large indoor installations were retroactively credited to “Christo and Jeanne-Claude”. They flew in separate planes: in case one crashed, the other could continue their work.Jeanne-Claude died, aged 74, on November 18, 2009, from complications of a brain aneurysm.Although their work is visually impressive and often controversial as a result of its scale, the artists have repeatedly denied that their projects contain any deeper meaning than their immediate aesthetic impact. The purpose of their art, they contend, is simply to create works of art or joy and beauty and to create new ways of seeing familiar landscapes. Art critic David Bourdon has described Christo’s wrappings as a “revelation through concealment.” To his critics Christo replies, “I am an artist, and I have to have courage ... Do you know that I don’t have any artworks that exist? They all go away when they’re finished. Only the preparatory drawings, and collages are left, giving my works an almost legen-dary character. I think it takes much greater courage to create things to be gone than to create things that will remain.”Their works include the wrapping of the Reichstag in Berlin and the Pont-Neuf bridge in Paris, the 24-mile (39 km)-long ar-twork called Running Fence in Sonoma and Marin counties in California, and The Gates in New York City’s Central Park.

WRAPPING THE U.S.A.

Project by Vahan Khachatryan

with Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Uncle Sam is a common national personification of the American government originally used during the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly man with white hair and a goatee beard. Typically he is dressed in clothing that recalls the design elements of the flag of the United States—for example, a top hat with red and white stripes and white stars on a blue band, and red and white striped trousers. The first use of Uncle Sam in literature was in the 1816 allegorical book The Adventures of Uncle Sam in Search After His Lost Honor by Frederick Augustus Fidfaddy, Esq.The well-known “recruitment” image of Uncle Sam was created by James Montgomery Flagg, an illustrator and portrait artist best known for commercial art. The ima-ge of Uncle Sam was shown publicly for the first time, according to some, in a picture by Flagg on the cover of the magazine Leslie’s Weekly, on July 6, 1916, with the caption “What Are You Doing for Preparedness?”

Uncle Sam

Brooklyn BridgeThe Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the Uni-ted States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. With a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m), it was the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge.Originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge, it was dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge in a January 25, 1867 let-ter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, and formally so named by the city government in 1915. Since its opening, it has become an iconic part of the New York skyline. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.

Madonna

The Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World, French: La Liberté éclairant le monde) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bar-tholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886. The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who be-ars a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue has become an iconic symbol of freedom and of the United States.

Madonna (born Madonna Louise Ciccone, August 16, 1958) is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983. She followed it with a series of albums in which she found immense popularity by pushing the boundaries of lyrical content in mainstream popular music and imagery in her music videos, which became a fixture on MTV. Throughout her care-er, many of her songs have hit number one on the record charts. Critics have praised Madonna

for her diverse musical productions while at the same time serving as a lightning rod for religious controversy.Madonna has sold more than 300 million records worl-dwide and is recognized as the world’s top-selling female recording artist of all time by the Guinness World Records. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), she is the best-selling female rock artist of the 20th century and the second top-selling female artist in the United States. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked Madonna at number two, behind only The Beatles, on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists, making her the most succes-sful solo artist in the history of the Billboard chart. She was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the same year. Considered to be one of the “25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century” by Time for being an influential figure in contemporary music, Madonna is known for continuously reinven-ting both her music and image, and for retaining a standard of autonomy within the recording industry.

Mickey Mouse

Marge Simpson

Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character who has become an icon for The Walt Disney Com-pany. Mickey Mouse was created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks[4] and voiced by Walt Disney. The anthropomorphic mouse has evolved from being simply a character in ani-mated cartoons and comic strips to become one of the most recognizable symbols in the world.

Marjorie “Marge” Simpson (née Bouvier) is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the epony-mous family. She is voiced by actress Julie Kavner and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short “Good Night” on April 19, 1987. Marge was created and designed by cartoonist Matt Groening.On April 9, 2009, the United States Postal Service unveiled a series of five 44 cent stamps featuring Marge and the four other members of the Simpson family. They are the first characters from a television se-ries to receive this recognition while the show is still in production.

Coca-Cola

American FootballAmerican football, known in the United States as foot-ball, is a sport played between two teams of eleven. The objective of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the opposing team’s end zone. The ball can be advanced by running with it or throwing it to a teamma-te. Points can be scored by carrying the ball over the op-ponent’s goal line, catching a pass thrown over that goal line, kicking the ball through the opponent’s goal posts or tackling an opposing ball carrier in his own end zone.In the United States, high school football, college foot-ball and professional football are played under slightly different rules. High school football is governed by the National Federation of State High School Associations, college football by the National Collegiate Athletic As-sociation and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, while the major professional league is the NFL.

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in the stores, restaurants, and vending machi-nes of more than 200 countries. It is produ-ced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke (a registered trademark of The Coca-Cola Company in the United States since March 27, 1944). Originally intended as a patent medicine when it was invented in the late 19th century by John Pemberton.The equally famous Coca-Cola bottle, cal-led the “contour bottle” within the company, but known to some as the “hobble skirt” bottle, was created by bottle designer Earl R. Dean. In 1915, the Coca-Cola Company launched a competition among its bottle suppliers to create a new bottle for the be-verage that would distinguish it from other beverage bottles, “a bottle which a person could recognize even if they felt it in the dark, and so shaped that, even if broken, a person could tell at a glance what it was.”