Entertainment For Lively Minds
Boris Plays A Blinder?
Posted by torrential1 on 1 April 2010 - 2:15am.
Are we liking the Olympic rollercoaster, or is it a massive waste of money and aesthetically pish?
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Not pish
But still probably a massive waste of money. How are we supposed to judge value for money nowadays anyway?
Wow!
Great photo too.
Scratches head.
Checks date.
I think it's ugly
Which is one thing I didn't think I would say about an Anish Kapoor work. The central 'massive Olympic torch' idea is fine, but I don't get what Torrential1 correctly refers to as the 'roller-coaster' bits. Not wild about the rust-red colour either.
That said, as an resident of darkest Essex this is what I will see on the train to London as it passes through Stratford and I'm sure it will become a landmark which I look forward to.
dupe
post
I think Kapoor
may be getting into his "Henry Moore" phase where an interesting artist who became famous for beautiful small scale humane work gets given large public commissions and just blows up small maquettes to an overblown scale they don't justify.
Is it actually
modelled on Boris's small intestine?
I thought it was
his hair
You know what?
Before the Eiffel Tower was finished, there were critics who said it was pointless, extravagant and stupid. And it's still there.
Yes, it looks odd but I think it's admirable that someone is prepared to do something striking and different with public architecure, not just build identikit crud.
Give it time and people will come to love its very idiosyncrasy.
i love it
And I agree with illuminatus I think people will grow to like it. Similar to the angel of the north appreciation that followed the initial negativity.
Shame its related to the olympics and the hassle and cost that shebang will create for east Londoner like myself.
It resembles...
...a very complicated Dominatrix's shoe.
can you
give me her number please?
Call City Hall
And ask to speak to "The Mayor's PA"
That's what I thought
Clearly we both need treatment. Very very bad treatment...
Molesworth 1
Report to Matron imediatley for yur medcine coo er gosh
Its a fair cop
but society and pubik skool is to blame. chiz
Value for money?
There will always be people who argue against something like this on the basis of it being poor value for money. It always sounds like such a "sensible" argument, I don't know how you can ever win it except by saying that if we always thought that way we wouldn't have any beautiful buildings. It reminds me of the whole debate about the Millenium Dome, which it has been so fashionable to castigate. I applaud the fact that someone had the guts to do that. We may not always get it right but surely it's better to do something and get criticism than to do nothing for fear of it. I agree with Illuminatus and Goosefat. This is a good thing.
Look ugly to me too
An image with a Photoshopped sky might persuade people that its not that bad, but I agree with Gatz, the piece itself just doesn't look well designed.
Strange that Anish Kapoor, who was a good choice, would come up with something looking so clunky. And even stranger that during an economic payback which is going to last 4 to 6 years they are going to shell out for such an Engineers wet dream.
A man like Boris Johnson can of course be relied upon to come up with the wrong decision at the wrong time. A good reason not to vote Conservative this time might be to stop that idiot getting anywhere near any real power.
But
the construction will create jobs - hopefully with a UK contractor getting the work, and UK engineers doing the legwork*. That can't be a bad thing, especially in this economic climate. Great public works are an important part of shared culture, but it's true that not everyone is going to love them.
* Could be a job for Cleveland Bridge - responsible for the Wembley arch and, in an earlier life, the Sydney Harbour and Tyne bridges (as Dorman Long). At least, as a proud Teessider, I'm hoping so!
Jobs?
Jobs? yeah probably about 80 of them for about a year. While I'm sure there will be a few workers, and tiers of management who will be very happy, that's not an economic impact.
Do you have any idea what it costs to commission someone like Kapoor to come up with this? What proportion of it ends up in his pocket will of course probably never become public. Comparative to kind of sums involved in these projects, I think the MP's who actually have to declare everything on top of their 120 grand a year, get a relatively hard time.
speaking of jobs
what about all my mates who are architects who are short enough of work at the moment without sculptors muscling in with their squiggles.
Well
possibly more than that in the construction, because it will need some solid engineering to make the vision actually work. And the steel has to come from somewhere, so why not the UK? Then it has to be assembled (which is where somewhere like Cleveland Bridge could come in). That's a lot more than 80 jobs.
I am something of a cynic, so I can readily understand where you're coming from (usually I might even agree). But I still think that this would be a great project and might have some positive impacts in some less obvious places, however much Kapoor might be trousering.
I am a big fan of Anish Kapoor's work...
and had a very profound experience when I sat staring at one of the pieces he'd created for his Royal Academy show for around two hours. However this sculpture doesn't do much for me. It seems to lack the sensuous beauty of form that I've appreciated in his art.