Description
Non-Object (Plane) by Anish Kapoor stands 16-feet tall, a little over 7-feet wide, and weighs around 3,500 pounds. Its monumental, concave form contrasts with the works delicate structure and surface of mirror-polished stainless steel, a material the artist has worked with extensively; the piece also provides a striking counterpoint to the eccentric forms and metal cladding of the Stata Centers Frank Gehry architecture. Visitors encountering the sculpture can engage directly with the works playful reflections of themselves and the surrounding space, animated by light from the overhead skylight and clerestory windows. This piece is an example of Kapoors interest in voids, perceptual ambiguities, and continuities between form and space. The artist is perhaps best know for his 110-ton stainless steel sculpture Cloud Gate in Chicagos Millennium Park, which was inspired by the shape of liquid mercury. Kapoor has remarked: Ive always felt a fascination with the modern, the industrial, the mechanical, the seemingly scientificand then to use these materials in order to search for their oppositethe intimate and the sublime. This artwork was commissioned for the TMSC Lobby as part of MITs landmark Percent-for-Art Program, which allots funds to commission or purchase art for each new major campus renovation or building project. Kapoors work was made possible by donations that supplemented the available Percent-for-Art funds, including generous gifts from an anonymous donor; Robert Sanders 64 and the Sanders family; The David W. Bermant Foundation: Color, Light, Motion; and Julian Cherubini 57.
Details
- Work Date:
- 2010
- Location:
- Room No. 1
- Dimensions:
- 192 in. x 84 in. (487.68 cm x 213.36 cm)
- Medium:
- Stainless steel
- Credit Line:
- Commissioned with MIT Percent-for-Art Funds and generous gifts from an anonymous donor; Robert Sanders ’64 and the Sanders family; The David W. Bermant Foundation: Color, Light, Motion; and Julian Cherubini, MIT Class of 1957