Currents: Anish Kapoor's New Sculpture Unveiled at 56 Leonard in Manhattan

"The city can feel frenetic, fast, and hard, imposing architecture, concrete, noise. Mirrors cause us to pause, to be absorbed and pulled, in a way that disrupts time—slows it down, perhaps."

—Anish Kapoor

New Yorkers who pine for the charms of the Windy City can rejoice—artist Anish Kapoor has brought a version of his famous Cloud Gate sculpture to a Manhattan street corner. Unlike the freestanding "Bean" at the center of Chicago’s Millennium Park, this yet-untitled work is wedged into the base of Herzog & de Meuron’s 2017 residential tower on a well-trod intersection in TriBeCa. On RECORD's visit in early February, just after its unveiling, more than 40 passersby stopped over the course of an hour to admire and touch the sculpture, and take pictures of themselves in its irresistibly reflective surface. “I love how it reflects the city back to you,” said one New Yorker. “It looks like a wad of gum,” said another.