The Mastaba of Abu Dhabi, Project for United Arab Emirates [bottom panel] 1979

This is Christo's 'The Mastaba of Abu Dhabi, Project for United Arab Emirates', a mixed media piece. It's like a massive, colorful structure rising out of the desert. Christo’s vision, rendered with colored pencil and technical skill, really emphasizes process. You can see the individual marks, the layering of color; it’s all about building up the image, brick by brick, just like the actual Mastaba was intended to be. The surface has a kind of dry, chalky texture that makes you think about the desert. Brown and orange blocks are striated with fine lines, giving them depth and presence. There's a real physicality to the medium. It's not just an image; it’s a record of labor and time, a testament to the sheer effort involved in realizing such an ambitious idea. It is hard not to think of the Land Art movement of the 70’s, like Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, in relation to Christo's large-scale interventions in the landscape. Both embrace the temporary and the monumental, blurring the lines between sculpture, architecture, and environmental art.