What: ‘The Bean’Cloud Gate, popularly known as ‘The Bean’, is British artist Anish Kapoor's first piece of public sculpture in the U.S. The 110-ton highly reflective legume-shaped sculpture is forged of 168 steel pieces, each weighing 1,700 pounds; together they reflect the city's famous skyline and the clouds above. A 12-foot-high arch provides a "gate" to the chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives. The sculpture is among the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33-feet high.
click here to view fullscreen“What I wanted to do in Millennium Park is make something that would engage the Chicago skyline…so that one will see the clouds kind of floating in, with those very tall buildings reflected in the work,” says artist Anish Kapoor. “And then, since it is in the form of a gate, the participant, the viewer, will be able to enter into this very deep chamber that does, in a way, the same thing to one's reflection as the exterior of the piece is doing to the reflection of the city around.”
Kapoor didn’t name the piece Cloud Gate until it was nearly completed in July 2004. In the meantime, the Chicago public had already coined it "the Bean", a term the artist initially bristled at but has now come to embrace.
The $270 million park got into some hot water last year when the park’s management required a $350 permit to take photographs of the sculpture, using publicly funded security guards to kick out anyone that looked like a professional photographer. After receiving negative publicity for policing a public site to such an excessive degree, the park rescinded the permit
“I had never heard of the sculpture, much less seen a photo of 'Cloud Gate,' before arriving in Chicago,” says photographer Tom Lassiter, who was visiting from North Carolina. “After friends told us about it and Millennium Park, my wife checked them out while I was busy at a trade show. She reported back that I HAD to go see 'The Bean' and make a pano.
“Cloud Gate puts people in a good mood, and everyone takes photos. On that Saturday morning, I was the only person with a tripod. The odd setup and process required for a pano earned several questions from onlookers, as usual. I made panos outside 'The Bean' before venturing underneath, where it was rather crowded.
“As you can see in the pano, people love to get very close to the surface and play with the reflections. The effect on the underside is much like those "funhouse mirrors" often found at carnivals.
“One of the park personnel watched with great curiosity as I made a pano about 10 feet from the mirrored surface of 'The Bean.' In fact, he was so focused on me that he walked right into the side of the sculpture and bonked his head! I said to him, "I can't believe that, of all the people here, you were one who walked into the thing!" Rubbing his head, he walked away, saying, "Neither can I."
“Panoramas definitely change the way people see the world.”
