I have been reading about Anish Kapoor's Olympic sculpture, to mark London's hosting of the Olympic Games in 2012 (I thought at first it was an April fool's joke)...
This tangled and twisted mega-structure (with a viewing platform) alludes to the five Olympic rings, will be 115m high, and will cost £19.1m to build. Kapoor says he wanted the sensation of unstability; I think he must have meant instability or possibly even unsuitability... off balance, out of kilter, a helter skelter on acid, with all the hideous, tortured appeal of a car crash wreck.. It will indeed be 'a stunning spectacle' as expressed by London's mayor, Boris Johnson......UPDATE: May 2012Now that the 'Orbit' is built I am slightly warming to it as a sculpture - it is a monument to our restless times - complicated, agitated, but keeping it together. It does have an energetic, wilful spirit too - even in defeat it will not be beaten, it will be the last one standing after the medals are won, the athletes gone and the crowds dispersed. All our hopes and wishes for medal glory (TeamGB) are symbolically tangled up within this landmark sculpture - and there is a certain attraction in anything appearing slightly dystopian or even apocalyptic at the moment.You can read and see more about the making of 'Orbit' as it now has its own official website.Or just watch this timelapse film to marvel at this feat of engineering (bolted together by a team of four men - amazing).......The artist Anish Kapoor (working in collaboration with Cecil Balmond) has documented the whole project, from initial doodles and sketches to the final construction, on his website too (well worth a look).I like 'Orbit'; I just think it looks wrong in the Olympic village. Maybe after the Olympic Games it could be transported to Arizona......