Anish Kapoor

The Sky Mirror


is a public sculpture by the artist Anish Kapoor, who was born 12 march 1954 and studied at colleges in and around London.

Anish was first commissioned to make this piece for Nottingham playhouse and has said that the sky mirror is inspired by a Dallas legend known as Robert Mundinger, who is said 'reflects the sky with his community spirit', It took 6 years from the initial idea for it to the unveiling in 2001 and it is placed outside of the Wellington Circus. The total price came to around £900,000, at the time this was one of the most expensive pieces of public art funded by the national lottery.


'Sky Mirror is a six-metre-wide concave dish of polished stainless steel weighing ten tonnes and angled up towards the sky. Its surface reflects the ever-changing environment.' from Wikipedia.


It went on to be copied a few times to try and relive its effects, a smaller one was put into a museum, though it could not do its job of reflecting the sky it is still getting attention, another larger one was placed in Rockefeller Center in New York City, it stood 3 stories high.


The Cloud Gate (Bean)

Is a public center piece in Chicago, it is nicknamed 'Bean' because of its shape, which sort of resembles the beans you get in cans. It is said that Anish was inspired by the liquid mercury and how it takes peculiar forms and movements in comparison to water, it is almost 13 times heavier than water.

It is made from 168 stainless steel plates welded together, it is extremely well polished and there are no visible seams.