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The Bean


While I was downtown, I decided a trip to a certain Chicago landmark was well overdue. The Bean, formally known as Cloud Gate, is a giant silver bean-shaped statue in Millenium Park, done by artist Anish Kapoor. If you follow anything art-related, you might recognize Kapoor as the selfish artist feuding with Stuart Semple because Kapoor got himself exclusive rights to the darkest shade of black ever invented. This feud is also where I know The Bean from, because Ellie sent me Facebook events in the wake of this feud that had to do with painting The Bean Blackest Black, or Semple's counter, Pinkest Pink.

The Bean is evident as soon as you get into Millenium Park, and it is kind of mesmerizing. It shows a distorted but somehow very inviting reflection of the city around it. I definitely didn't expect The Bean to speak to me. Near The Bean is this sign with a QR code...


And if you use the QR code...


The Bean calls you! And The Bean has a lot to say. It introduces itself and it's artist, and it has a fair amount of commentary on being called The Bean. It claims to find the name reductive, if somewhat charming. It also has a lot to say about the nature of reflection. The Bean invites you to examine everything reflected on its surface before settling on having you focus on your own reflection. It asks if, when you look at it, you see it or yourself. Then The Bean invites you to look at reflections as a different world, rather than just reflections. Finally, it suggests that you might be the reflection, trapped inside its surface, never really existing, before hanging up.

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