Playing with mirrors.
This is no longer timely, but a week or two ago, like the good blogger I am, I did stroll over to Rockefeller Center to check out the temporary Sky Mirror installation by artist Anish Kapoor. And having just been to Chicago, I couldn’t help but compare it to Cloud Gate, another of Kapoor’s works, which is permanently installed in that city’s Millennium Park. Both are incredibly striking, though I have to say that I find the differences in their presentations almost as striking as the works themselves.
In Rockefeller Center, Sky Mirror is placed in the middle of the Promenade’s narrow corridor, flanked by buildings, reflecting patches of sky, storefronts, people, buses, taxis, etc. The impression is an urban and claustrophobic one, and speaks to how profoundly a work of art interacts with its immediate surroundings.
Cloud Gate, on the other hand, is placed in the middle of a gorgeous, wide open park that is always teeming with people, surrounded not only by buildings but also by trees, grass, water, and a host of other examples of public art. A totally different environment, and we experience it in a totally different way.
Most striking to me, though, is the fact that in Chicago there is no attempt at separation between the crowds and the art. Cloud Gate begs to be interacted with, and the masses seem thrilled to do so, surrounding it, touching it, walking through it, around it, lying under it, encouraging children to play with it, etc. New York, on the other hand, is completely hands-off. Sky Mirror is placed all alone at the center of an elevated platform–a platform that is watched over by security guards to make sure no one gets too close or, god forbid, touches its shiny surface. Suddenly, outdoor promenade becomes stuffy museum gallery.
I can’t help but wonder if this works as a metaphor for the differences between our two fair cities. Chicago: vast, open, friendly, beautiful, and hands-on; New York: crowded, claustrophobic, concerned with the appearance of beauty yet cold and hands-off. Autistic.
Granted, I don’t know Chicago nearly as well as I know New York. What say you, fellow travellers?
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I love the giant bean in Chicago. I haven’t seen Sky Mirror, but the one in Chicago is great. Some friends of mine took some incredible pictures with that thing.