The Orbit from inside the Olympic Park |
As you probably know by now, I enjoy drawing comparisons between the Modern and the Ancient Olympic Games.
The other day we drove past the Olympic Park on the A12, and I noticed that more of the Orbit sculpture is visible from the road now.
Building the Orbit, from Anish Kapoor's website |
I followed progress with interest last year while they built it, as I was writing about building a different kind of Olympic colossus at the time. I never quite believed that something as odd as the Orbit would be identified with the excitement of the Games, but I was always in awe of those huge cranes ...
The sculptor of the Orbit, Anish Kapoor, always takes me by surprise with his creations - sometimes pleasantly, sometimes not.
Sian Frances' magnificent impression of the statue
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You may remember the scene in The Boy with Two Heads where the hero, Themis, helps install the face, one of the last components to be put in place:
Themis lay along the beam and watched as
a huge parcel, crated and wrapped, was brought to the door [of the Temple] by a team of ten
men. He could hear the stamping of the oxen at the Temple ramp. The hubbub
inside suddenly stilled.
Phidias strode into the Temple and stopped in the
middle of the floor, in front of the cloth-covered statue. He turned towards
the doors.
‘Master
Harpist!’ he called, and a musician stepped out from behind a column. ‘You and
your musicians should be up in the gallery. When I make this signal with my
hand you will play in the rhythm we agreed.’
‘Certainly, Master Phidias,’ said the harpist with a
nod, and he and his two colleagues ran up the stairs to appear opposite
Panainos.
The great bundle was carried into the open space
beside Phidias. The slatted casing fell away and a sling of ropes was tied
round the wrapped disc inside.
At the signal from Phidias, the musicians began to
play. Themis and the men in the roof all shuffled into their places. Men on the
floor pulled on their ropes. Curtains of dust drifted down as the wrapped disc
rose towards the ceiling, swaying in time to the music. When it was almost
touching the beams there, Themis and his team began work. They pulled and
stopped as directed by the music. The disc moved towards the gaping front of
the head. Men wriggled along beams, moved pulleys and re-laid ropes.
So Phidias and Anish Kapoor both created world-famous colossal Olympian sculptures, although for very different reasons. And of course, their building methods were a bit different, too.
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