I want to get this out of the way first! I have no beef with Anish Kapoor! I very rarely have true issues with artists. Jeff Koons, I do have some personal beef with, but we don't have to get into that now. I just want to say, I do not care about the drama with the blackest black.
As a piece of art, Cloud Gate (or as it's colloquially called, The Bean) is rather lovely, honestly. Most pictures I see of it are at daytime, but the nighttime view of it I've included just blows me away. The way the lights of the city reflect on it.
I see it sort of as the opposite of that giant orb in Vegas. Instead of projecting it's own images into the city, it simply reflects the city itself in a strange distorted way. This distortion of the city, the immateriality of the images it reflects creating a strange ghost of the city in it's reflection? I find that erotic. There is a sort of transcendent divinity to this reflection, in my opinion. Elevating the cityscape around it to this artistic level most would not usually look at it on.
I know we love to joke about Kapoor, about the Windexing the Bean, about how silly it seems, but I think if you look at it with fresh eyes in the right lighting, it's really almost awe inspiringly beautiful.
Now, as for actually jerking it? Sadly, many pictures of Cloud Gate do not have it alone with the city. I find the presence of tourists mildly off-putting in these pictures for yankin' one out purposes. (Though, it adds to the artistry for me and the beauty). When you do get pictures of it alone though, it's a solid 6/10 for me. It could be doing more, but it's not too bad.
I also encourage you to look at Anish Kapoor's other works! Svayambhu and A Blackish Fluid Excavation are personal favorites of mine.
NAH I’ve been tracking this for so long and ran to my mailbox 😭
He’s wonderful and so soft I love Himb so much TY @theskeletongames (Poetax I’m so sorry I dont know what blog to tag skehdud) for designing them beautifully!!
can we talk about how everything about Anish Kapoor is a fucking lie.
No he does not hate how people call it 'The Bean', he has openly adored the name. Quote from Kapoor 'I call it "The Bean," too'.
Also, he didn't just simply buy exclusive rights to Vantablack. for one Vantablack isn't a paint, its an industrial process that can only be done in strict conditions with specialist machinery in small amounts. The lab couldn't afford to give usage to every artist who wanted to so instead they specifically chose Anish Kapoor to make art installations as advertisement.
It's fucking insane how much of a whiny bitch Stuart Semple is. His Black 4.0 is a great product but to sell it by shitting on another artist for childish accusations is just dumb.
Simcoe offering some loud purrs while she luxuriates with her "kill". She had just marched around the house with it in her mouth meowing loudly (or trying to, because as previously mentioned, the toy was in her mouth as well), and kept yelling until we all acknowledged her and told her what a good job she did.