Tuesday

Chicago's Cloud Gate

Yesterday I brought up an alphabetical letter and its relationship to Clouds.  Now another Cloud, Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate, this piece of art is a full dose of metaphorical light.

When I see Cloud Gate in person any reason for wartime appears ridiculous because we’re united. As a Chicagoan and former hotel concierge, I know you’ll share the sculpture’s view with other civil people, that live somewhere on our globe. In its reflection you see that the clouds and sky appear so much bigger than us, and that we’re all just human beings. That’s the real picture.  The earth dominates us, is us, and surrounds us.     

You look around Cloud Gate, and all of a sudden, you can’t help but go under.  This is the sculpture’s 12-foot underbelly, something Kapoor named an omphalos.  In Greek, omphalos means “navel” and according to Greek legend it’s the world’s center.  Kapoor has said, “This piece hovers between architecture and sculpture.  It is a kind of gate, and when completed, three quarters of its surface will be sky.”  Kapoor is from Bombay India and now lives in London. 

Cloud Gate’s 110 tons sits in Chicago’s Millennium Park.  It’s a cinch to get to. Construction on the piece started in 2004, funding came from private donations, and I hear it’s quite a workload to maintain. 

I have a book on Millennium Park by Timothy J. Gilfoyle.  It highlights Kapoor’s work and the history of Chicago’s Grant Park, or Millennium Park.

In summation, Cloud Gate should be listed as a modern day World Wonder.

Sheila Cull

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