Mayors everywhere, watch and learn – this is how you create urban cultural icons. Cloud Gate, or "The Bean" if you’d like, is one the most creative choices I’ve seen for public art in a public space (with all due respect to the odd Picasso statue). Any way you look at it, it’s special, unique, puzzling, intriguing, fun even, and it’s a magnet for people – especially kids (like me), especially for those who love to play around with the camera.
It really helps to have a central location surrounded by special skyscrapers and visit on a day with an especially blue skies. The effects you get are quite spectacular.
Want the background? Here’s a quick bit from Wikipedia:
Cloud Gate, a public sculpture by Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor, is the centerpiece of the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park within the Loop community area of Chicago. […] Constructed between 2004 and 2006, the sculpture is nicknamed "The Bean" because of its bean-like shape. Made up of 168 stainless steel plates welded together, its highly polished exterior has no visible seams. It is 33 by 66 by 42 feet (10 by 20 by 13 m), and weighs 110 short tons (100 t; 98 long tons).
Said to have been inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture’s surface reflects and distorts the city’s skyline. Visitors are able to walk around and under Cloud Gate’s 12-foot (3.7 m) high arch. […] The sculpture builds upon many of Kapoor’s artistic themes, and is popular with tourists as a photo-taking opportunity for its unique reflective properties
Check out Anish’s interesting design drawings on his website.
Alright, on with the photofest…
Want to see some self-portraits games?
The bean, I’ll have you know, isn’t the only cool feature of the Millennium Park. One other very interesting exhibit is the Crown Fountain…
Cool? Isn’t it? those faces are changing, and every once in a while some water comes out of the mouth…
Kids love it…
and adults too…
Love this park. Great use of public space. Wish there were more like these everywhere.