exploring ‘self’ as an art experience
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Visual experience of artist Anish Kapoor's 'Cloud Gate'.TRANSCRIPT
“Exploring ‘self’ as an art experience”
Manu Sharma M.Arch | Post Professional | Winter 2014
Arch-566 – Cultural LandscapeMcGill University
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In 2006, two years after the grand inauguration of Chicago’s Millennium Park, an
artwork was displayed for public, which became a key to success for the Park. The
artwork looked so perfect with its reflective gleaming surface, giving its viewers a
second thought for its creation in this world. The fascinating sculpture created and
named “Cloud Gate” by World-renowned artist Anish Kapoor, soon became iconic
symbol for the skyscraper city Chicago. Cloud Gate, a public artwork residing in an
open public space has a different impression on its audience than the artwork in
the museums. In museums, the absence of lived with, daily environment and
cultural context results in fading of art experiences. The paper explores the
questions, what could the art situated in regular life contribute to having an art
experience? How we can engage with public space through integration of Public
Art? How public art has been perceived as an aspect of cultural domination? The
paper revolves around the artwork ‘Cloud Gate’ as a case study and the active
engagement of public with it. The study mainly focuses on the interpretation of art
experience of the case study, with the writings of American Philosher John Dewey
and art curator, author Mary Jane Jacobs. The perception of the artist towards the
artwork is also taken into consideration for understanding the forces behind the
evolution of such an expressive magnetic appealing piece of public art.
In order to understand the perception of art experience in the environment,
the question arises, what is public art? It’s a visual artwork that is accessible to all.
Public art enriches a community and place, celebrates an area’s past, present and
future and engages response from the viewers, hence public art can be defined as
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publically accessible original art that enriches a community as it suggests meaning
in the public realm. Public art is lot different from museum and classic art, due to
various reasons, like the wide variety of audience, the need to generate harmony in
the surrounding space and sociological influences. Public art generates a sense of
ownership, the connection between the citizens, city spaces and places through
which affection could be constructed. Art experience cannot be perceived without
the role of public in it. Perception was essential in the modern period of art, as
artists became more conscious in the late nineteenth century of the way the eye
works, of the way the paint can capture light. Recognizing the potential role of the
public, of the content and the perceptions they can bring to a work and their
experiences that can enhance art’s meaning, artists began to operate quite
differently in public space starting around the mid 1980’s.1 They became visible to
the public, sharing the process and seeking the involvement of others in the
conception and execution of works, this lead to the development of new public
practices with the emergence of collaborations between artists and non-artists.
Significantly, it resulted in an enlarged role for the public as maker, informer,
participant, as well as spectator. The artist’s mind-in-making is not just the result of
lessons, knowledge or skill acquired, it is constantly determined by the actual
process of making and the depth of understanding one brings to bear during that
process.2 This understanding is what moves outside the known for the self, for the
viewer, audience and potentially for the society or culture at large. The work of art
derives its “presence” from this sensitive understanding from the artist’s presence
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!Mary!Jane!Jacobs!!“In!the!space!of!art”!2!Ibid.!
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of mind. The audience may be outside the art world, they can understand a work
that enters their environment in ways not even imagined by the artist. They can
contribute to the meaning of work in public space and can contribute to its making.
In the beginning of 20th century, John Dewey called museums an invention
of capitalism, and he exempted their claims to be proper home for art, set apart
from common life.3 Dewy argued that art is kind of experience rather than an
object. The authentic work of art is what the object or thing does with, and in
experience.4 To deeply understand these words, one has to use them in practice
again and again like artist Anish Kapoor. Kapoor has never failed to astonish and
inspire his audience with his artwork that establishes an appeal with physical and
psychological shapes creating different illusions, scale and perspectives. Earlier
work’s of Kapoor, whether it be the fabrication of raw materials, stone or polished
metals could be named “objects as thresholds”. His concepts of turning the world
upside down, ideas of ‘void’ and presence of ‘nothing’, makes one think how does
he ‘see’ these forms where none seem to exist and to express them not only with
the mathematical precisions of an architect, but with the aesthetics of a poet. Mary
Jane Jacob argues about the process of art making in which the artist does not
know the outcome, what the work of art will look like, or even be. It is a process
with shifts and changes, of concurrently seeing and finding a new way, staying
open to what you don’t know and haven’t seen. This space of art is a mental space
in which we see things as if for the first time.5 Kapoor’s art objects suggest the
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!3!Mary Jane Jacob “Art in Public Space”, On practicing in public, 37!4!ibid.!!
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fullness and emptiness that concurrently exist in all things, literally their being and
nothingness. His art making is meditative and as peaceful as his beliefs in
Buddhism, we can imagine how he seeds an idea and nurtures it meditatively, till
the time it yields to conclusive form.
The ultimate threshold, Cloud Gate is a space for being and for becoming
an artwork with interaction. It is considered no place, while containing all space.
The sculpture is the centerpiece of the AT & T Plaza in Millennium Park, serving
thousands of visitors each day. The 110-ton elliptical sculpture, thirty-three feet
high and sixty-feet long rests on a retaining wall above railroad tracks, restaurants
and underground garage. According to the artist the artwork Cloud gate is a
poetical work, which represents an access point for the city, or possibly a portal
Figure!1!!>!Kapoor, Anish. Cloud Gate.
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towards the sky.6 The reflective metallic surface acts like what Kapoor calls ‘skin’,
splitting the sculpture from its external space. The artwork forms 12 feet high arch,
which acts as a “gate” to the concave chamber underneath the sculpture that
attracts visitors. The sculpture made of 168 prefabricated stainless steel plates
welded together, was assembled on site in the Millennium Park that took a period
of two years.7 The highly polished surface not only provides splendid views of
Chicago’s skyline, but also encourages viewers to interact with their own
reflections. The reflections from the sculpture bring down the skyline and
environment together giving the viewers a new spectacle for appreciating sky and
context together. The way it distorts the reflection creates a different way of seeing
an environment and the perception of the spectator’s about the background in
which it is placed. The fascinating thing about the artwork is not that it is simply a
sculpture placed in an environment; the artwork would not exist without the
environment. The artwork demands interaction and would be nothing if it has
nothing to reflect. The full realization of the art is based on the central role of the
public as an active participant in the art experience. Dewey set a foundation for
understanding the casual nature of art, what causes art to arise in the artist and
hence to be created and what causes art to affect the viewer and thus to be re-
created.8 Dewy considered the place of the viewer as central. A work of art is art
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!6!Crone, Rainer, Alexandra Stosch, and Anish Kapoor. Anish Kapoor: Svayambh. Munich: Prestel, 2008. Print, 42 7!A. Hermann, “Cloud Late: Bean Busts Budget” Chicago Sun Times, 26 May 2005 http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20050526/ai_n14651576!8!!Dewey, “Art as Experience,” 285.
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when it lives in some individual experience and is recreated every time it is
esthetically experienced. Without this act of re-creation the object is not perceived
as a work of art.9!
It is art’s distinctive aura that draws us in, our attention and motivating us
to look more deeply. The spectator's reaction to a work’s presence is occasionally
reliant on the work’s familiarity; it resonates with our own experience. Yet
sometimes its unfamiliarity has the deepest impact on our experience. Elizabeth
Kelley, the curator for the public art of City of Chicago’s Department of cultural
Affairs reports about the Cloud Gate, “ it is very personal interaction. The
constantly shifting and moving visual images can be considered in the same guise
as the art of today- video art and media art. The reflections are never twice the
same”10 Observing it with the variation of the time of days, years and with the
weather, it totally can never be perceived the same way twice and neither the
sculpture nor the iconic downtown skyline reflection can ever become too
recognizable. Any familiarity is further destabilized by the experience of standing
beneath the interior “omphalos” (Greek for ‘navel’), where one sees the reflection
being shattered into infinity.11 The Funnel-shaped hole, the portion where the
outside of the surface seems to be its inside pulls the ambiance into the gaping
void of the sculpture, consuming everything from images to rays of light and even
the gaze of the spectators.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!9!!Dewey, “Art as Experience,” 28 10!Interview of Elizabeth Kelley, 7 December 2006.!11!Crone, Rainer, Alexandra Stosch, and Anish Kapoor. Anish Kapoor: Svayambh. Munich: Prestel, 2008. Print, 42!
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Artist Suzanne lacy coined the term ‘new genre public art’ to define what
she saw as a new course where public art include critical and conceptual work with
a focus on collaboration, interaction, context and process.12 John dewey tells us,
through the perception ‘our own experience is re-oriented and it is this experience
that is more effective because it enters directly into attitude’. So the experience of
art can have different variations in experience. 13On stepping towards the Cloud
Gate’ for interaction, the reflection compresses, expands or gets inverted. Stepping
sideways the image slowly dissipates and finally vanishes. A disconnection is felt
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!12!Mary Jane Jacob “Art in Public Space”, On practicing in public , 37!13!John Dewey, “Art as Experience,” in Stanley Rosen, ed., The Philosopher’s Handbook (New York: Random House, 2000), 274.!
Figure!2!!>!“Omphalos” beneath the interior Cloud Gate. 2010.!
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between what the body is experiencing and what the logic of reflection it dictates.!
The sculpture also warps viewer’s perception of time by changing the speed of
movements such as the passing of clouds. The gleaming surface connects us with
itself by its unceasing moving reflections but what does it mean if something is
stagnant in front of it? What remains constant is its relationship with the physical
presence of the body. Indeed when looking upon at this expressive organic shape
reminds us that this abstract shape do already exist in the real space but we
assume its deepest meaning when we internalize and reflect our body’s experience
upon it. Thus the artwork becomes, what we call ‘human body’. The interaction with
the artwork is a view to explore into ‘self’, the experience something of what is
beyond the ‘self’. Its mirror-polished surface erases its own originality, and acts like
a mind, in a sense the mind observes the space and reproduces within itself. The
delicate contract of the piece is between the lightness and mass, as it seems to
float almost weightless.
Figure!3!!>!Skyline of Chicago and notion of Weightless in the Cloud Gate!
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Encountering with this artwork requires us to step outside the time, to stay
and appreciated its ultimate logic, to confront the experience of our own
disappearance. The City of Chicago becomes simultaneously more and less itself.
Everyday thousands of people move around it, So that it rapidly gets absorbed into
the experience of everyday life and its location, Millennium Park. It allows us to see
that the city is not eternal by giving a sense of visuals that could be other than what
they are. We are pulled into the bigger space that is greater than we can realize, its
emptiness dissolving us and even rejecting us. What ever we call it, Spiritualistic,
poetic or metaphysical, we feel overwhelming and dizziness mixed with awe when
faced by the force and magnitude of its immeasurable beauty. The other
achievement of the artwork is how it internalizes the thrust of Frank Gehry’s
architectural vocabulary by acting as a threshold for getting inside the Stata
Center, which is next to the sculpture in the Millennium Park. The public took an
instant liking to it, affectionately denoting it to as ‘The bean’. Its perfect mirror finish
and infinite reflections makes it desirable to photography but permission from the
artist or the City of Chicago is required for any commercial reproduction of the
work. By looking at the success of the Cloud Gate, Dewey now would have
appreciated the changes that occurred in public art in the later 20th century, which
is more complex and delicate ways of joining with the audience and a direct ways
of working with the public.
Many people would argue that traditional gallery spaces are public in their
openness to interested viewers, while conversely others would insist that the
privatization of public space has meant that the art placed in the public spaces is
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necessary for all. Thus public art is an art which has its objective, a desire to
absorb with its audience and to create spaces, whether physical, virtual or
imagined within which people can identify themselves, perhaps creating a renewed
reflection on community, on the uses of public spaces or on behavior with them.
The city and its public spaces are the ground to form public art. Not only has Cloud
Gate been created for the city but it is also the result of the city-related patterns
and needs of its citizens for social interactions. Unlike classic art, which expresses
the artist’s personal worries, and in other word’s, is author-centered, public art
seeks to respond to needs and requirements of its own field. Due to the fact that
the public art looks unique and distinct from a visual perspective, it takes more
symbolic role and manifests itself in city identification and legibility, when it is
designed and created in reliability with its area and location specifications. It can
improve the city’s liveliness and can intensify social interactions through
establishing a connection with citizens and associating the place with citizen’s
mind. The perceived potential of public art to work on multiple stages and its
adaptability gives it such cultural viability. Public art not only contributes to the
visual attractiveness of the city but also has the ability to aestheticize urban
spaces. Listing the policy studies institute’s summary of the contribution that public
art can make in a number of contemporary urban issues like contributing to local
distinctiveness, attracting investment, boosting cultural tourism and enhancing land
values.14
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!14!Joanne Sharp, Venda Pollock and Ronan Paddison, . Just Art for a Just City: Public Art and Social Inclusion in Urban Regeneration, 1004!
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Most public art, however, are more modest in its intervention and scale and
its economic contribution is often original and typically indirect. Art advocates have
argued that public art can intervene and help severed social connections, both by
promoting community discovery and awareness and by directly enhancing social
connections. It has also been claimed that public art can act as a medium through
which a ‘sense of community’ can be established and promoted. We recognize’
Sense of community, in this context, to refer to an awareness of social body
occupying a shared space with connections reducing some common identity,
values or culture. The aim of public art in this context is to articulate and strengthen
the bonds between people and place. Consequently much public art attempts to
promote consensual readings of place around which communities might come
together. According to art and design column from New York Times, “Cloud Gate
has been involved with near-rapture by Chicagoans, who gather to see their
skyline in its polished surface (‘Lets be frank’, The Chicago tribune wrote, “ the
bean is hot”).15 Although the unexpected delay and increased budget caused
controversy, press articles on cloud gate have made fronts, showing how deeply it
has embedded into Chicago’s spirit. It is now one of the most beloved public
artworks in Chicago, The sculpture has transformed into a civic icon of the city,
appearing in postcards and city guides.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!15!R. Kennedy, “A Most Public Artist Polishes a New York Image”, New York Times, 20 August 2006 !
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Bibliography
Anish Kapoor / Homi K Bhabha and Jean De Loisy London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2009 ‘Anish Kapoor: the bean and the big apple’ / article by Zoe Ryan (New york awaits Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror) in Blueprint no.248 November 2006 / Anfam, David, Johanna Burton, Richard Deacon, and Salvo D. M. De. Anish Kapoor. London: Phaidon, 2009. Print. ‘Atmospheric pressure: new etchings by Anish Kapoor’ / article by Sarah Andress in Art on Paper vol.13 no.5 May/June 2009 ‘All & nothing’ / article by Martine Gayford (interview with the sculptor Anish Kapoor) in Apollo vol.167 no.555 June 2008 A. Hermann, “Cloud Late: Bean Busts Budget” Chicago Sun Times, 26 May 2005 http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20050526/ai_n14651576 Baas, Jacquelynn, and Mary J. Jacob. Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004. Print. Bina Sarkar Ellias,!Anish!Kapoor:Essence!and!Absence, Visual arts Web. http://www.eastonline.eu/attachments/article/643/east%2048_Anish%20Kapoor%20Essence%20and%20Absence.pdf Crone, Rainer, Alexandra Stosch, and Anish Kapoor. Anish Kapoor: Svayambh. Munich: Prestel, 2008. Print. Cloud Gate, see: http://www.anishkapoor.com/works/gallery/2004cloudgate/index.htm 1 November 2009. Dewey, John. Art As Experience. New York: Minton, Balch & Company, 1934. Print. Jacob, Mary J, and Jacquelynn Baas. Learning Mind: Experience into Art. Chicago, Ill: School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2009. Print. Joanne Sharp, Venda Pollock and Ronan Paddison, . Just Art for a Just City: Public Art and Social Inclusion in Urban Regeneration. Diss. Urban studies, 2005. Web. http://usj.sagepub.com/content/42/5-6/1001.abstract
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Kurke, Mary A. “Public Park and Recreation Land Availability in the City of Chicago.” M.A. thesis, Western Illinois University. 1976 Miles, Malcolm. Art, Space and the City: Public Art and Urban Futures. London: Routledge, 1997. Print ‘Modern sublime: a conversation with Anish Kapoor’ / article by Ina Cole in Sculpture (Washington, DC) Nicholas Baume, “Floating in the most peculiar way”, Anish Kapoor: Past, Present, Future, MIT Press, 2008 Partha Mitter, “History, Memory, and Anish Kapoor”, Anish Kapoor: Past, Present, Future, MIT Press, 2008 Stefan Gaie, . Public Art And The Space. Diss. university of oradea, 2010. Web. Tim Hall & Iain Robertson,!Public Art and Urban Regeneration: advocacy, claims and critical debates. Diss. Urban studies, 2001. Web. http://www.nettuno.unimib.it/DATA/hot/469/Materiali%20laboratori%20on-line%202009_2010/TORNAGHI/3_hall%20and%20robertson.pdf Figure 1 http://anishkapoor.com/110/Cloud-Gate.html Figure 2 http://www.publicartgreenart.com/images/wow-cloud_gate3.jpg Figure 3 http://alierturk.deviantart.com/art/Chicago-Cloud-Gate-I-141793401