Arcelor Mittal Orbit: The Godzilla of Public Art


Photo: Cmglee/Wikipedia

Fans said that it's comparable to the Eiffel Tower, whereas critics billed it as a roller coaster gone bad. Whatever you think, it's safe to say that London's new ArcelorMittal Orbit - which is now the tallest sculpture in Great Britain - sure generates a lot of opinion:

Some critics have called the ruby-red lattice of tubular steel an eyesore. British tabloids have labeled it "the Eye-ful Tower," "the Godzilla of public art" and worse.

But artist Anish Kapoor and engineer Cecil Balmond, who designed the tower, find it beautiful.

Belmond, who described the looping structure as "a curve in space," said he thought people would be won over by it.

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Oops, my mistake in being so specific, but my point stands.

I suppose I shouldn't blame the architect, really, as this was clearly designed by computer... probably with the intent of showing off what can be done with steel these days.
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As a Brit, I hate it. God, it's ugly. But I don't like much of our public art; whenever I go into Birmingham and see Gormley's Iron Man a little bit of me dies inside (also, that thing is terrifying).

The thing with art is that it's subjective. What one person finds beautiful, another finds ugly. But there are always some designs we can all generally agree on, such as classically inspired sculpture. Such 'out there' art should be kept for museums, not foisted upon the public.
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Kalel:
How does your point stand? You claimed that "Art often goes horribly wrong when financed with public money." This was not a government funded project. You were proven wrong therefore your point cannot stand.

Did you cite any specific examples where "Art often goes horribly wrong when financed with public money?" Can you?
And art is subjective, so what you find as "horribly wrong" is not necessarily what others see.
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