What type of city is complete without an enormous, reflective silver jelly bean? That’s what I thought: not a single one. Which means, that Chicago is really the only “complete” city on the planet, because in fact, it has it’s own enormous, reflective silver jelly bean. Cloud Gate, the official name of the jelly bean, is located right downtown and reflects the city skyline from every possible direction. The thing is amazing – AND you can walk through the middle of it. I tried to take some pictures, but the reflective nature means I am in all of them with a camera to my face… and the hugeness of the thing means that in order for you to be able to distinguish my face the only other thing you can see is silver jelly bean. But, I have included it anyway just so you can get the gist of the coolness that is an enormous, reflective silver jelly bean.
One of the strangest, but also most fantastic pieces of sculpture in Chicago is the Flamingo by Alexander Calder and is located just off the blue line train in the Federal Plaza. I have loved the abstractness of this form for years, although it wasn’t until I tried googling it today that I found out what it was actually called. And just for the record: flamingo’s are pink. This sculpture is orange. Ok, I’m glad I got that out of the way.
Alright, according to Wikipedia, the Flamingo is “vermillion”… whatever color that is. I think that’s just a fancy word for “orangey-red.” At any rate, the color-issue aside, this is amazing and I love it! That’s all.
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Okay, so how does the old silver bean not reflect the sun and burn the eyeballs at certain points of the day.
Comment by Making my way in PA 2007 July 20 @ 10:38 amI love the jelly bean… public art is something I really miss about living in a small town.
Comment by RA 2007 July 20 @ 12:34 pmVery cool. I’ve never really thought of what Chicago had to offer…
Comment by Andrea Jolene 2007 July 23 @ 8:47 amI think the Flamingo looks more like a giant orange scorpion that is going to eat me. I mean it’s still cool, but I think it could eat me, or at least stab me to death with one of it’s legs.
Comment by Miss Erika 2007 July 29 @ 8:58 am