Oh I see. Funny things people decide to spend their money on - I have just read his wiki entry... a chance encounter with Boris at the urinals, OK.
Very chunky steel construction - coincidentally came across the same method in picture of new telescope built in Namibia.
www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/hfm/HESS/
That aside, as an enormous work of art - surely one of the biggest in the world.
It is also interactive in that people can go up and look down - which is v popular if you consider the Eye and many other towers. So will bring tourists into Stratford.
It is also a landmark within the Olympic Park - which is enormous! Picture wembley stadium surrounded by half a dozen other major stadia and you will get the idea of the scale - lots of space between the venues as it is intersected by canals, river, railway lines etc. A good brisk half an hour's walk at least from one end to the other.
I had a good look at the Orbit yesterday - close up and not so close up.
I have seen lots of Kapoor's work before - it is often Red and otherwise grey so no surprise re colours. I think he is the best thing in Uk modern sculpture (and art) by a mile. He often does BIG but this is very very big. I don't know of anyone else who could have pulled this off. Gormley would have wanted to do a very big person...
I think it is one of those things that does not grab me instantly but as you look at the different angles it makes me think of the structure of DNA (discovered in the UK), the UK's and the immediate area's industrial past (we did invent steel production) and also, an exuberant fountain - gravity defying arcs - which makes me think of the exuberance of the olympics.
I recommend a visit. A photo on a page is not what it is for. I would like to go back one day to look at it again and go up it, when things are a little quieter over there!