Unveiled outside Nottingham Playhouse in 2001, the award-winning Sky Mirror is a renowned piece of our city’s cultural architecture that has provided the backdrop to many memories over the years. The sculpture was voted Nottingham’s favourite landmark in a landslide victory in 2007 and was even rumoured to be “capable of barbecuing birds in its path” – although no pigeons have ever been harmed.
Sir Anish Kapoor is one of the most influential sculptors of our time, winning the Turner Prize in 1991 and creating a number of celebrated pieces of art including the famous Cloud Gate in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Versions of Sky Mirror have also been presented at the Rockefeller Center, Kensington Gardens and the Palace of Versailles.
The Guardian Reported:
Sculpture has death-ray potential
Paul Kelso
A sculpture commissioned as the crowning glory of Nottingham’s new Playhouse Theatre has been put on hold, for fear it might blind people or incinerate the local birdlife.
The Turner prize winner Anish Kapoor has designed a giant dish mirror to be erected outside the theatre. However, an astronomer has warned that the mirror could focus light into a reflected beam capable of barbecuing birds in its path.
Other potential victims of the concave steel mirror, six metres across and costing £900,000, include staff or visitors in the Playhouse bar and passersby.
The warning came from Michael Merrifield, a professor at Nottingham University, who is the Sky Mirror project’s consultant astronomer.
“The mirror will focus light, just as does a magnifying glass, down to a particular point that moves as the sun moves.
“You need to stop the sun from falling on it in the first place. If you don’t there’s a potential danger. Any pigeons which fly through the beam could be instantly barbecued.”
The threat would come for 16 weeks of the year either side of midsummer day, June 21, between the hours of 6am and 8am when the sun rises above the Playhouse. For the rest of the year the sculpture would be shaded by buildings and trees.
Angled 16 degrees from the vertical and positioned in front of the Playhouse, the intention of the Sky Mirror was to reflect merely the sky. Instead, during the risk period, the sun’s rays would be concentrated into a funnel shape projected upwards towards the theatre bar. Several inches wide and stretching for six metres, the beam would be as hot as 40 single-bar electric fires.
To combat the risk, a sun screen 7.5m long and 4.5m high is be erected on the Playhouse roof, and measurements will taken through the year to plot the sun’s movements. Once the problem has been assessed, a less obtrusive retractable screen will be installed above the main entrance, to avoid detracting from the sculpture.
The project team denied that the problem had come as a surprise – saying they had been aware of the potential risk a year ago but had waited until the exact position and angle of the sculpture had been decided upon before developing a solution. “This is an insurance policy against any possible mishaps,” said Alan Humberstone, the Playhouse’s public art programme director. However, since the building is listed, English Heritage must give permission for a screen, and the installation has been put back to April 27.
Kapoor, 46, was born in Bombay. He moved to England in 1973 and studied at Hornsey college of art and Chelsea school of art in London. In 1990 he won the Premio 2000 with the British pavilion at the XLIV Venice Biennial. He won the Turner in 1991. A retrospective at the Hayward in 1998 attracted large crowds.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/mar/07/paulkelso1
Insta360 Ace Pro – 4K Video 3840 x2160
