Sculptor Anish Kapoor Criticizes NRA’s ‘Nightmarish Vision’
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Sculptor Anish Kapoor spoke up against the National Rifle Association’s campaign showcasing his Chicago sculpture – “Cloud Gate” known as “The Bean,” which, according to him, was used without his authorization and is used in a videSculptor Anish Kapoor Criticizes NRA’s ‘Nightmarish Vision’
Sculptor Anish Kapoor spoke up against the National Rifle Association’s campaign showcasing his Chicago sculpture – “Cloud Gate” known as “The Bean,” which, according to him, was used without his authorization and is used in a video propagating hate messages. The video was created for an NRA advertisement and it used the artist’s sculpture without permission. Anish Kapoor wrote a letter condemning gun violence.The NRA of the US has broadcasted a controversial video advertisement in 2017 with the name of “The Clenched Fist of Truth.” The advertisement warned about liberal America’s threat to freedom. The advertisement has also showcased a brief scene detailing Anish Kapoor’s 2004 sculpture in steel titled “Cloud Gate” at Chicago’s Millennium Park. Recently, the artist voiced his opinion, releasing an open letter where he condemned the gun advocacy group’s “nightmarish, intolerant, divisive vision” that according to the artist has ran counter to “everything that Cloud Gate – and America – stands for.” [Frieze]The commercial usage of the images of the artist’s sculpture strictly demands the artist’s approval as the artist holds the right of usage. General visitors can definitely photograph the sculpture for free but advertisers need to seek the artist’s permission. Yet as Kapoor said, the permission to use this image was never given to NRA. The one-minute promotional video showcases a series of shots of several American architectural feats – this includes the Walt Disney Concert Hall as well as the headquarters of the New York Times.Kapoor stated in the open letter, shared by Artnet, that the NRA “in its nationalist rhetoric uses Cloud Gate to suggest that these ideas constitute a ‘foreign object’ in our midst.”NRA spokeswoman, Dana Loesch, stated in the minute-long video: “The only way we save our country and our freedom is to fight this violence of [media] lies with the clenched fist of truth.”Kapoor said in his statement, quoted by Artnet, that the image that has been used by the NRA “plays to the basest and most primal impulses of paranoia, conflict and violence, and uses them in an effort to create a schism to justify its most regressive attitudes.”The Los Angeles Times speculated last year that the inclusion of the sculpture seems to be focusing on imageries that are apparently somewhat not American enough. Frank Gehry’s Disney Hall, Renzo Piano’s New York Times tower as well as Anish Kapoor’s work is somewhat a conscious reference to people who are not ‘American’ enough, for example Jewish people, or those who are born outside the border of the US. Kapoor essentially was ‘disgusted’ that his sculpture has been appropriated by NRA who are using it for a message that “seeks to whip up fear and hate.” [Frieze]Though it is an interpretive question deciphering the reason behind NRA’s use of his work and the way it has used it, according to the artist. [The Guardian]Anish Kapoor spoke to The Guardian and he has been quoted: “it’s also that, as a matter of fact I hold copyright, this is an advertisement. I disagree with what it’s saying, and they did not ask that my permission.” Read more