Cloud Gate
Abhijit Kumar
Cloud Gate is a public sculpture by Anish Kapoor in Millennium Park, Chicago. The sculpture is shaped like an ellipse, and its legume-like appearance has caused it to be nicknamed “The Bean”. It is made of 168 highly polished stainless steel plates, and stands at 33 feet high, 66 feet long, and 42 feet wide, weighing 110 tons.
From a distance it could be mistaken for a huge drop of mercury, while up close its highly reflective surface captures and transforms the skyline, the downtown cityscape and even the passers-by into a wonderfully warped new vista. The artist, Anish Kapoor, has referred to the sculpture as “a gate to Chicago, a poetic idea about thecity it reflects.” The 12-foot underbelly is called the “omphalos” or navel and multiplies reflections in a vortex.
So New York City has the Statue of Liberty, San Francisco has the Golden GateBridge, but what does Chicago have as it’s most well known and loved landmark? The Bean!
Even as I was walking around Chicago as a tourist myself, people would often come up to me and ask me directions to “The Bean”. I had no idea where it was at the time! I had to pull out my map and work it out with them together.
“The Bean”, or more formally known as Cloud Gate is a public sculpture created by a British artist, Anish Kapoor. Here’s some fast facts about this crazy sculpture: it weighs in at over 110-tons, and is 66 feet long and 33 feet high and first unveiled on July 16, 2004.
The Bean” is so unique because it has the appearance of a giant drop of liquid mercury, and the mirrored surface offers such an amazing reflection of the city’s skyline. It’s absolutely breathtaking on a bright, clear day as the day I was lucky enough to visit. To get this seamless smooth shiny surface, “The Bean” was created using a huge number of individual stainless steel plates and many hours of polishing
The great thing about “The Bean” is that you can get a different shot of it from every angle. You can wander around and spend hours here trying to get every shot! I did that for a very long time until I realised that you can even go underneath the bean and it was a whole another world!
I was absolutely stunned by what I saw underneath the bean. Because it was concave under, the reflections was incredible! If you were under the mission of taking every shot at every angle before.. try taking every shot at every angle now!
Regards,
Komal
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Abhijit Kumar
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