Cloud Gate a/k/a "The Bean"

So, I traveled north to the city of Chicago this year. I had some free time so I decided to walk around the downtown area. Without warning, I landed in Millenium Park -- an urban park, plopped right down in the middle of downtown Chicago. It was a pretty cool place, actually, with a full open air theater, a garden area, and several interesting things to look at. Including one large, shiny bean.

It actually wasn't a bean. It's called "Cloud Gate," and it was designed by a British artist named Anish Kappor. This large, shiny bean is 33 feet by 66 feet by 42 feet tall, and weighs 110 "short" tons. Research reveals that it was "inspired" by liquid mercury and is "one of the most popular sculptures in the United States." If you stand on one side, it simply looks like a shiny orb. But, if you move around to the middle, you can see that it has a concave ascending chamber (techincally called an "omphalos"). You can walk under the omphalos and the images seen in the reflection are warped and warbled. (You can sorta see that in the picture on the left).

The sculpture was completed in 2005. The cost for constructing the bean was first estimated to be $6 million. That balloned to $11.5 million in 2005. And the final figure was $23 million. Apparently, no public funds were used.

Like any good, shiny bean, Cloud Gate is wiped down twice a day by hand and is cleaned twice a year with 40 gallons of liquid detergent. The seamlessness of the bean has an apparent artistic purpose, of which I'm not sufficiently scholarly to identify. But, some say that it helps "dematerialize this very large object, making it seem light and almost weightless." Also, the bean might be an attempt to evoke "immateriality and the 'spiritual.'"

I just thought it was purdy to look at.