Oil barrels have consistently held a place in Christo and Jeanne-Claude's work, from Christo's wrapped oil barrels of 1958 and the 1962 Iron Curtain--Wall of Oil Barrels, to a wall of 13,000 barrels constructed in the Gasometer, Oberhausen, Germany, in 1999. The artists' proposed project for the United Arab Emirates will take the form of a colossal mastaba, a trapezoidal tomb used in ancient Egypt. Comprising 390,500 vividly colored oil barrels, the Christos' mastaba (at 492 feet high, 984 feet wide, and 738 feet deep) will be comparable in size to the great pyramids. Its immensity and location will address the enormous global consumption of, and dependence on, oil.

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