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After years of delays, New York City finally has a shiny silver bean of its own. A new sculpture by Anish Kapoor—modeled after his famous Cloud Gate, known as the Bean, in Chicago—was officially unveiled this week. [...]
Despite its resemblance to Cloud Gate, is different in several key ways, reported Tribeca Citizen in 2018. For example, while Chicago’s Bean is bolted securely to the ground, Manhattan’s mini-Bean is more free-flowing, able to move and shift depending on the weather.
— Smithsonian Mag
The $8 million freestanding sculpture has been teased since 2008 when renderings for Herzog & de Meuron’s domineering 56 Leonard Street tower were first revealed to the public. It has a less-expensive twin at the MFA Houston and will get an official name later in the coming months... View full entry
A design world arms race to make the blackest black has intensified this week after an artist revealed his latest creation called Blink. Stuart Semple created the ink over a period of two years after launching a precursor called Black 3.0 in 2019. The artist had been reacting to the... View full entry
An 18th-century palazzo fronting Venice’s Cannaregio Canal is getting a bespoke makeover thanks to funds of a blue-chip British artist. The Art Newspaper is reporting that the Palazzo Manfrin will be the new home of the Amish Kapoor Foundation following a renovation that will add a... View full entry
Alexico Group, the development firm behind Tribeca’s 60-storey “Jenga Tower”, a Herzog & de Meuron-designed residential high-rise at 56 Leonard Street, announced that it will start installing a public sculpture by Anish Kapoor commissioned specifically for the building in the second week of November. — The Art Newspaper
Kapoor's shiny 56 Leonard bladder — resembling a smaller, squashed version of his Chicago "The Bean" landmark — made quite a splash in early renderings for the Jenga-like Manhattan condo tower in 2008, but overcoming various fabrication obstacles has not been easy and thus pushed... View full entry
British artist Anish Kapoor has reached a settlement with the NRA for using his reflective Bean sculpture in one of their promotional videos. The ad, titled The Violence of Laws, had used images of modern architectural landmarks, such a Gehry's Disney Concert Hall, Piano's New York... View full entry
In a new statement, Kapoor claimed that it was the “solidarity and support” of the public that encouraged him to take action against the NRA, and urged everyone “to stand up to the dark and aggressive forces in society that seek, out of fear and hatred, to lead us backward into a primitive, paranoid, and defensive worldview.” — artnet
After denouncing the National Rifle Association in an open letter this past March, artist Anish Kapoor filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the group on June 19 for the unauthorized use of an image of his famous “Cloud Gate” sculpture in this 2017 ad titled “The Clenched Fist of... View full entry
Looks like Houston has a giant, shiny bean-shaped sculpture of its own now. Completing its two-day installation today, “Cloud Column” by Anish Kapoor — the same artist who created Chicago's infamous “Cloud Gate” — is the first of two sculptures on the Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza at... View full entry
In a week in which the White House Press Secretary stated that Hitler never gassed his own people, it's worth taking a moment to remember the Holocaust. In the U.K., the United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial Foundation and the British Government have enlisted some of the top design firms in the... View full entry
Never has an attraction promised so much yet delivered so little. It was the roller coaster without a ride, the helter skelter without a slide, a £20m mountain of steel leering above London’s lean Olympic stadium as a mocking monument to the vanity of the city’s former mayor, Boris Johnson, and its funder, the steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal [...]
As Guy de Maupassant said of the Eiffel Tower, being inside the Orbit is the best place to be – because it’s the only place you don’t have to look at it
— the Guardian
Ouch.Yet, it's not all bad: "...when you’re hurtling down through the structure’s contorted loops on the new corkscrew slide that opens this weekend, all this can be momentarily forgiven," opines Wainwright.In related news:Carsten Höller to unveil his ArcelorMittal... View full entry
Höller wanted to show that you don’t necessarily get to know a sculpture better by literally travelling through it; that once inside it begins to look like something else entirely... The Slide, a permanent fixture at London’s Olympic Park, will give people a full 40 seconds to experience this and decide for themselves as they make their way down the 178m chute at an estimated 15mph. — wallpaper.com
The British company developing the uses of a super black, light absorbent material called Vantablack S-VIS is working with leading architects as well as the British artist Anish Kapoor.
The founder and chief technology officer of Surrey NanoSystems, Ben Jensen, says that the company is working with “some large and well respected global architects,” and that the coating is already available for “suitable applications”. He declined to name the architects involved “due to prior agreements”.
— theartnewspaper.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:UCL researchers present a new kind of self-cleaning nano-engineered windowThis Nano Membrane Toilet could solve the world's sanitation crisis – and charge our phonesRejoice aesthetes! New incandescent bulbs are now more efficient than LED View full entry
This week, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London announced that “the world’s longest and tallest tunnel slide” will wrap around Anish Kapoor’s “ArcelorMittal Orbit.” When the sculpture went up in 2009 after winning a design challenge, it proceeded to receive mostly scathing reviews — and a spot on the shortlist of the 2012 Carbuncle Cup [...]. Today, Kapoor revealed that the slide is actually a work of art, designed by none other than Carsten Höller at Kapoor’s own invitation. — hyperallergic.com
In other artsy-slide-related news on Archinect:Artist Carsten Höller to install massive slides on London's Hayward GalleryCarsten Höller Is Installing a Slide at New Museum View full entry
London's iconic Crystal Palace just moved one step closer to its magnificent resurrection with the announcement of six shortlisted design teams, all vying to rebuild The Crystal Palace and the surrounding public park as a major landmark. — bustler.net
The list of selected architects to move on to the next competition stage reads like a who's who in British architecture:David Chipperfield ArchitectsGrimshawHaworth Tompkins ArchitectsMarks Barfield ArchitectsRogers Stirk Harbour + PartnersZaha Hadid Architects with Anish Kapoor View full entry
A giant purple structure believed to be the world's first inflatable concert hall is to open on Japan's disaster-hit north eastern coast.
British sculptor Anish Kapoor and Japanese architect Arata Isozaki created the unusual Ark Nova, a balloon made of a coated polyester material that has been erected at a park in the town of Matsushima.
The structure, which organisers say is a world's first, measures about 18m and 35m wide when fully inflated with room for about 500 guests.
— dailymail.co.uk
The success of a public work of art is measured not merely by aesthetics, but rather, by its magnetic qualities that inspire interaction. The art is a reflection of the City, the art becomes a part of the City, the art is instrumental in making the City. — Spirit of Space
Acting as poetic translators between cities and their citizens, the creative agency Spirit of Space uses digital media to showcase humanity's built environment, consequently enhancing the citizen's self-awareness and appreciation of architectural space. Their film for Skidmore, Owings... View full entry
