Anish Kapoor's Sky Mirror

Bombay-born, London-based artist Anish Kapoor, most famous in America for his giant Chicago sculpture "Cloud Gate" in Millenium Park, has unveiled his "Sky Mirror" sculpture in New York -- but only for a short time. The
site of the 35-feet tall mirror is Rockefeller Center, which has hosted temporary sculpture from artists like Takashi Murakami and Jeff Koons in the past. Kapoor's "Sky Mirror" will be up till October 27.

According to the New York Times, Kapoor will install a permanent memorial to the British World Trade Center dead (there were a mere 67 of them) in Lower Manhattan next year.

The Times tells the story of how Rockefeller Center's "Sky Mirror" came to be:

Last year, not long after he was chosen to create a work by Tishman Speyer Properties, a co-owner of Rockefeller Center, and the nonprofit Public Art Fund, which helps to organize projects at the center, Mr. Kapoor came to New York to take a good hard look at the area. He was, he says, briefly at a loss.

"It's a very difficult space," he said. "I mean, there are already so many things there that one wonders: Do I really need to put anything else? What's the point?‚"

He thought of making a misted-water rainbow installation or a column of smoke, but then he settled on duplicating one of his previous sculptures: The Nottingham Playhouse "Sky Mirror", unveiled in early 2001.

New York's version is bigger. (The Nottingham mirror is about 20 feet tall to New York's 35.) Of the Nottingham mirror, the Nottingham Playhouse's website says: "Contrary to media speculation Sky Mirror does not pose any danger to the public or pigeons in the form of a barbecue ray."

So the Rockefeller Center "Sky Mirror" will be installed till late October. But where will it go next?

Here's someone's pretty nice night shot of the "Sky Mirror" from Flickr, and here is Gothamist's coverage of it. Here's Kapoor at the Tate Modern.