periodic presence

“Orbit,” the deeply intriguing 2012 Olympics sculpture/tower by Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond. I find this one of the more moving things I’ve seen this year—yes, I’m speaking of a bunch of steel bars welded together to form a 337ft-high tower. It’s just extremely raw, chaotic and industrial and I guess that’s what really appeals to me.

Kapoor wrote that he was influenced by the Tower of Babel and wanted to design something with an almost myth-like quality about it; while Balmond said elsewhere he kept electron orbitals in the back of his mind. Emphasizing the seeming instability of an electron circling an atom Balmond said he sort of incorporated this idea into “Orbit.” 

(via contextblog-deactivated20120228)