I wanted to create an action that was a direct response to Cloud Gate by Anish Kapoor. It was part of a series of actions in response to public art that I was working on at the time. Most people who visited the sculpture would behave in similar fashions; they would be seduced by the brilliant reflective quality of the sculpture and proceed to take pictures of themselves in it. Most interactions only lasted a few minutes before viewers left. I interpreted the sculpture quite literally. For me it indicated both inward and outward reflection: reflection on the individual, and reflection on the whole (city). I wanted to encourage the idea of spending more time with Cloud Gate and to do what I felt like it was asking its audience to do. I spent a full working day, sitting with my eyes half open,reflecting on and observing, my mind, sensorial systems, and the context of cities like Chicago.
This piece was accepted into the "stillness'' series on The Present Tense .
October, 2009, (photos by Celia Marks)
