A Trip to Chicago

Cloud Gate is British artist Anish Kapoor's first public outdoor work installed in the United States. The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect the city's famous skyline and the clouds above. A 12-foot-high arch provides a "gate" to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives.

Inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture is among the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33-feet high. Cloud Gate sits upon the At&T Plaza, which was made possible by a gift from AT&T.

What I wanted to do in Millennium Park is make something that would engage the Chicago skyline…so that one will see the clouds kind of floating in, with those very tall buildings reflected in the work. And then, since it is in the form of a gate, the participant, the viewer, will be able to enter into this very deep chamber that does, in a way, the same thing to one's reflection as the exterior of the piece is doing to the reflection of the city around.
-Anish Kapoor



This sculpture is affectionately known as "The Bean".








I've wanted to go to Millenium Park for years, just to see The Bean.









I am glad I did. I saw the pictures of it, but the experience was much more.









It was a great day for pictures with the clouds at Cloud Gate.









One of my favorite shots is this one.









How cool is it, that you can walk right through a sculpture and never take your eyes off it...









What a surprise to find The Bean has a very interesting underbelly that rises up unexpectantly.









The abstract images were fun to play with.









Finally, a shot of 2 Oompa Loompas on the loose are captured.