Thursday, March 18, 2010

Cloud Gate, Chicago 12/29/09





Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve I drove out to Chicago with my daughter Gillian and her partner Kim( Kim goes to school there). I’d never been to Chicago and had always wanted to go to the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago. I also wanted to see the public sculpture known as “The Bean” ( which is actually named “ The Cloud Gate”) luckily its just outside the museum in Millennium Park .
Installed in 2004, the sculpture is made of“stainless steel plates over a fortified steel frame. Under these plates, it is actually hollow on the inside. It was built and finished in place, on site because it was too heavy, bulky and dangerous to transport as one completed piece into Downtown Chicago. Also, after it was built, it had to be polished and have its seams removed, giving the appearance of being one large shiny object, instead of being the sum of many shiny stainless steal plates.”
It’s the work of “ Anish Kapoor, who is an Indian sculptor originally from Bombay, but now residing and working in London. He designed it, and the City of Chicago Millennium Park Project folks created it.”I’ve liked what I’ve seen of his work in galleries, so I thought this would be good.
As you get close to it, the size of it is overwhelming. The entire world around you, reflected in the curved surface is mesmerizing.
Gillian particularly liked the snow and how it broke up on the surface as it melted. I was impressed by the anamorphic quality of the underside. It was like some swirling vision of the world, surrounding a mirror image of the people below it in a circle in the center. It seemed magic and beautiful on that clear, cold winter afternoon in Chicago. We had a great time.
Quotes from billslater.com

2 comments:

Tisha Paige said...

I would love to see this sculpture. It seems like not only a really neat thing to see, but quite a piece of craftsmanship.

Unknown said...

so bill if you would of drove a bit west to idaho i wlould of seen ya lol hows it going old boss you were my boss at set control then you got me in at arnold sin the bronx old co worker and friend james mcdonough i left florida after 3 hurricanes beating us up and moved to idaho photos are kewl you need to og into facebook ok ill message later bye jim