Cloud Column (ELA)
Discussion through works of art encourage how to approach ambiguous and complex ideas, thoughts, and feelings. The MFAH offers a democratic space where students and teachers can develop, practice and articulate these habits of mind. Remember that the quality of the conversation is what is important, not finding the artist’s “answer.” Slow down and take the time to make careful observations. Talk about what you notice, and try to avoid jumping to conclusions and interpretations. Be sure to give enough time for silent looking and thinking.
Work of Art
Anish Kapoor’s “Cloud Column” stands over two stories tall, rising 32 feet toward the sky and weighing 21,000 pounds. This massive free-standing sculptural work, located in the Brown Foundation Inc. Plaza, encourages ambitious manipulations of form and space to be perceived. The highly reflective surface of polished stainless steel animates the gathering place adjacent to other sculptures in the Roy and Hugh Cullen Sculpture Garden. Cloud Column was conceived in the late 1990s, completed in 2006, and installed in Houston in 2018. It is a singular work within a decades-long engagement encapsulating what the artist has called “defining space.” It was assembled entirely by hand in London, with the artist on site, dictating where he wanted surfaces hammered and welded. It was five years in the making and polished for another three years. Upon its arrival and installation in Houston, a single member of Kapoor’s London team perched on a cherry-picker and buffed the stainless-steel surface to its signature sheen, a process that took up to six hours. Unlike nearly all of Kapoor’s related sculptures, Cloud Column’s stainless-steel surface has been hand-worked, evoking the human touch.
Cloud Column has two very different sides; one side is beveled outward, while the other side is concave. The oblong form’s concave “front” faces the Glassell School of Art, inverting the structure, its surroundings and the viewer in its reflection. As the viewer stands below the sculpture the world is turned upside down with the viewer at the top and the clouds at the bottom. The sculpture’s convex side summons an interplay between the stainless surface and its surroundings, which reveals a direct reflection of the world around it. The play between the convex and concave surfaces establishes a dual reality, as the elongated core of the sculpture presents the world upside down, bringing the heavens down to earth. Kapoor challenges us to investigate how physics is manifested in this shiny ellipse.
Cloud Column gracefully invites us to contemplate not only the object itself, but also how we position ourselves in relation to the world around us. The highly polished stainless-steel surface reflects every nuance of light and at the same time captures the surrounding landscape. Kapoor’s works of art often allude to and play with dualities of earth/sky, lightness/darkness and visible/invisible.
Conversation
- Observe dualities at work in this sculpture. Elaborate and justify, using evidence from the work of art.
- How is this work of art related to Isaac Newton? Explain.
- How could the principles of physics relate to this sculpture?
- Compare Cloud Column to a telescope.
High school students are often locked into one idea or point of view. It can be challenging to look beyond ideas solidified in current schema. The ability to consider how an art piece could foster different ‘viewpoints’ can be extended to exploring how an author might do the same in literature. Full circle, students might then take a risk and challenge their own ideas, expand their own schema.
Learn more about this artist at Art21: https://art21.org/artist/anish-kapoor/
Subject Matter
- Observe this sculpture. Teacher facilitates observation using conversation starters and the following:
- Let your eye travel from top to bottom; from side to side. What do you notice?
- “What if I told you that part of this work of art is concave and part is convex?” Observe the reflections carefully to determine the convex and concave areas.
- Using stainless steel spoons, students observe their reflection on both the convex and concave sides. What changes occur to the reflection on the concave surface?
- Relate to Cloud Column.
Assessment
Think like an author: Why does an author choose a particular point of view? How does the author craft that point of view to achieve meaning? How does an author infuse bias, assumptions, or develop a sympathetic character?
Resources
Resources Available to Order
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