Anish Kapoor's 'Cloud Gate' unveiled at Chicago

[Merlion]

This is a magnificant sculpture. I'd love to see it if I have the chance to be around this part of the US.

Anish Kapoor's 'Cloud Gate' unveiled at Chicago's Millennium Park

From a distance it looks like a giant drop of glistening mercury, but up close it looks like a space ship that lost its way into the heart of downtown Chicago.

In reality it is Cloud Gate, one of the most anticipated sculptures of the celebrated half Indian-half Iraqi Jewish artist, Anish Kapoor.

The 66-foot-long, 33-foot-high and 42-foot-high giant bean like 110-tonne sculpture made of highly polished stainless steel plate, has now been officially unveiled in the Millennium Park, one of Chicago's most talked about public squares. [snip]

Click here (http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1676836,0011.htm) for the full news article. A photo of the sculpture is shown there.

[Studioinde]

I think that it is a fantastic sculpture. I'd heard about it, but it was great to see the picture now that it is completed and installed. Thanks for posting it.

[fused]

I was surprised by this news, since I thought the unveiling occurred back in July of 2004 when Millenium Park opened to the public. This must mean that all of the panels on the surface of the 110 ton stainless steel sculpture have now been welded into a completely seamless polished surface.
There are a lot of beautiful images of the Cloud Gate (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/cloudgate/) online.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/fused/ART/others/jellybean.jpg
the world's largest and most expensive jellybean

[Araich]

Stunning. Where did the funding come from? This work will last for centuries.

Any pictures of it being assembled?

[fused]

There is the official Millenium Park Site (http://www.millenniumpark.net/) and I was told today by someone who visited Chicago last November that the final cost of the park is $493 million. The $23,000,000 Cloud Gate has a photo essay (http://www.lynnbecker.com/repeat/Gehry/kapoor.htm) of it's very impressive fabrication online.

[Merlion]

Here's the latest news from the Chicago Sun-Times about this big shinny 'Bean'.

'The Bean it shall be' -- sculptor gives in to nickname
May 15, 2006

Twenty-two months after the public got its first look at Cloud Gate, the 110-ton stainless steel sculpture popularly known as the Bean, Millennium Park officials will officially dedicate the piece in an 11 a.m. ceremony today.

Finishing the enormous artwork proved more difficult than originally estimated, particularly in seamlessly welding its 168 plates together. The cost ballooned from $9 million to $23 million as private donors fumed over delays and cost overruns.

"It's been a long haul," said Cloud Gate sculptor Anish Kapoor, who began working on the project seven years ago. [snip]

Sun-Times: People's first reaction seems to be "wow." Then they say, "What is it?"

Kapoor: Hmmm. What is it? It's a collector -- it collects in the city, draws into itself the sky scape and the city scape. And then as you go through it and you're under it, it does the same thing to you. That's one of the things I wanted to do.

S-T: What did you think when you first heard people calling it The Bean?

The Bean, well. Ah, I thought it was fine. It's a sign of it entering the subculture at some level, and that's good, I suppose. The Bean it shall be.

S-T: The fingerprints have to be wiped off it three times a day. How do you feel about people touching it?

Of course, I'd rather people didn't touch it. But, you know, when there is something of wonder in an object, your hands try to affirm what your eyes can't quite get a hold of.

S-T: You objected to unveiling it publicly before it was finished -- its seams were evident on the day the park opened in July of 2004. Park officials overruled your wishes.

That's correct. I wanted it to come into the world as if unmade -- we've struggled over a long time to make it appear as if it has no maker. I wanted the making to be masked so that when we unveiled it, it was perfect. But that was not to be. [snip]

Click here (http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-bean15.html) for the full C S-T news article

[iron ant]

What an amazing fabrication,scale,quality of work,just numbs the mind.leaves this motor mouth without words.I love the reflection too...M3

[Ries]

Now this is an interesting example of the "did he make it all himself" school of thought- because obviously, he didnt.
In fact, I know a guy, Andy Drummond, who worked at the Fab shop that did a lot of the work on this piece, in the Bay Area. He is very skilled, along with all the other guys who built this piece.

I think this piece is great, and a great example of an artist using the entire industrial infrastructure of the US to make his artwork.
Nobody has ever made anything quite like this before- custom tooling and techniques had to be developed.
So its not like he just ordered it from a catalog- he designed it, and modified his design no doubt as real world concerns in the building of it reared their ugly heads.
To me he is every bit a sculptor, and a better one than many whose hangups on "doing it all themselves" restrict their vision to less broad horizons.

[philpraxis]

...
To me he is every bit a sculptor, and a better one than many whose hangups on "doing it all themselves" restrict their vision to less broad horizons.
Uhuhu.... I wish lots of people heard you, really.

I had an exhibition lately, the text of the invitation was:

"No! Please! Don't make ceramics, it's totally lame, not hype at all you know!"
-- XXX, Contemporary Artist

"I'm not a contemporary artist, I make my pieces myself!"
-- YYY, Ceramic artist

Well, this struck a cord. In my work I love to confront the need for modernity and the need for reality that are pushed into dogmas.

One dogma is not better than another, and playing with this is of extreme amusement. Sadly enough, some people take it too seriously to be able to laugh and create on that matter... tough for them :)

cheers

PS: Ries, your signature url has one extra T in the httttp ;)

[fused]

Sky Mirror (http://www.publicartfund.org/pafweb/projects/06/kapoor/kapoor-06.html), a breathtaking, 35-foot-diameter concave mirror made of polished stainless steel
--standing nearly three stories tall at the Fifth Avenue entrance to the Channel Gardens--
will be on view from September 19th through October 27th, 2006.

I haven't found images or press of the sculpture unveiled yesterday (yet).

[sculptor]

wow

with the high reflectivity,
it seems
quite literaly
to be
in the eye of the beholder

chamelian
art
morphing to reflect the everchanging environment
shimmering glowing through the crowds and clouds in the noonday sun
and fading to the reflected sparkles of lights and lamps on a summers eve

gimme more

[GlennT]

Perhaps this thread needs a curmudgeon point of view, so I guess I'll play that role. As an amazing piece of workmanship, yes. As an interesting use of form, sort of. ( would it be all that interesting if it were table-top size? ) As a piece of "fun" art, definitely. As a piece of profound art, not really. As a piece of art that takes over the space loudly, yessirreebobabkananda! As a piece of art that blends harmoniously with the site, nowayjose! A more appropriate site in my mind would be at Navy Pier where it could look like a docking UFO, fit in with the amusement theme there, reflect the beauty of the lake, sky, and Navy Pier Architecture, and not contrast so darn loudly with the beautiful downtown Chicago skyline architecture. when you are walking or driving by and suddenly for the first time you see this, the reaction is " What the....." Kind of like a sudden burst of Daiko drumming in the middle of a Beethoven symphony, or when as in the movie " My Cousin Vinnie" when the New York lawyer and his girlfriend appear in small town Alabama (?) and are noticing that they don't "blend" . ( with apologies to those that don't know what the heck I'm refering to )
( Actually, the Diako drumming might work in the 9th symphony )

GlennT

[Merlion]

Sky Mirror (http://www.publicartfund.org/pafweb/projects/06/kapoor/kapoor-06.html), a breathtaking, 35-foot-diameter concave mirror made of polished stainless steel
--standing nearly three stories tall at the Fifth Avenue entrance to the Channel Gardens--
will be on view from September 19th through October 27th, 2006.

[right]I haven't found images or press of the sculpture unveiled yesterday (yet).[right]
Thanks for the news alert, Fused.

Yes, there are news and photos of this Sky Mirror after its opening at Manhattan.

This is a good one from the BBC, Sky Mirror unveiled in Manhattan (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5362994.stm) .

[fused]

More views of the sculpture (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Sky+Mirror) via a Flickr Search.