Visceral Response

 I have a visceral response to the Cloud Gate sculpture at millennial part in downtown Chicago. Nicknamed the “Chicago Bean”, Cloud Gate offers many amazing photo opportunities with an infinite number of shooting angles. The sculpture has become more of a destination than a work of art, and has been described as a transformative, iconic work.

It creates in me a feeling of wonder and amazement. It's a surreal experience. As it distorts reflected images the viewer becomes a piece of the art. Like watching yourself on television, the audience becomes a part of the Chicago skyline. A deconstruction of empirical space makes the bean seem light and almost weightless.

All of the Gestalt principles become warped and distorted, which is where my fascination comes in.

Pragnanz - As the viewer approaches, they physically enter the art. When one walks underneath it into its "navel", the experience is described as a displaced or virtual depth that is composed of multiplied surfaces.

Continuity - The spherical shape interrupts closure at almost every angle. In order for the reflections to make sense, people have to look behind them to assess the reflections continuity. On the underside of the sculpture is the omphalos, an indentation whose mirrored surface provides multiple reflections of any subject situated beneath it. The omphalos is a "warped dimension of fluid space". In this dimension, solid is transformed into fluid in a disorienting multiplicative manner that intensifies the experience.

Closure - Closure is the challenge. The reflected images continually wrap around the sphere pulling the viewers eyes from the edges outward to identify the source of the reflections.

Figure/Ground Relationship - The landscape on which the sphere rests is in stark contrast to the futuristic science-fiction feel of the sculpture. Yet because it reflects its surroundings, the sphere becomes a chameleon, absorbing the environment. It becomes the background or landscape on which the figures rest.

(This Picture was taken by a great photographer fabio celeita)