christo will pay to deep clean london’s serpentine lake once mastaba sculpture is removed

after the removal of christo and the late jeanne claude’s monumental floating sculpture, the london mastaba, the artist will fund a range of ecological improvements to the serpentine lake where it is installed. in addition to creating new habitats for wildlife, christo will undertake a deep cleaning operation to improve the lake’s quality. the artist will also fund various new habitats for the surrounding wildlife. all this will happen once the public work, which consists of 7,500 horizontally stacked colorful barrels on a floating platform, is removed on september 23, 2018. 

images by wolfgang volz © 2018 christo

as reported by artnet who spoke with a representative for the royal parks, the serpentine’s herons will get baskets and waterfowl refuges, and boxes will provide refuge for the bats living beside the water in london’s hyde park. christo will also fund a deep clean of the lake will remove litter and ‘large debris’ from the bed of the lake, and the removal of excess phosphate from the water will reduce the growth of potentially harmful algae. efforts will also turn to the serpentine island which has become overgrown.

according to artnet, the royal park backed the sculpture because it didn’t impact the wildlife of the serpentine or hyde park. the artist’s plans should come as good news for those who believed otherwise, protesting the large-scale work.