"Has anyone of our time produced grander poetic gestures than has Christo"" wondered Charles Taylor in a Salon.com article. The subject of this question is, of course, the environmental artist-collaborators Christo and Jea nne-Claude, who use only their given names and are best known for monumental environmental/architectural sculptures such as "Berlin's Reichstag wrapped in acres of silver [fabric]; thousands of golden umbrellas landing like dandelion spo res on the hills along the California Grapevine [and in Japan]; islands in Florida's Biscayne Bay encircled by broad, floating necklaces of pink," as Leah Ollman described some of their better known works in the Los Angel es Times. For Ollman, Christo and Jeanne-Claude are "a phenomenon." The trademark of the artists' work, according to Taylor, is "majestic delicacy." Christo and Jeanne-Claude like to call these gigantic installations "gentle disturbances," as t hey may be grand...