Sculptor Anish Kapoor will bring 'negative space' to Brooklyn Bridge Park

The city’s Public Art Fund celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and has signed on to bring a work by artist Anish Kapoor—he behind Chicago’s Cloud Gate sculpture and a similar-looking installation at the base of 56 Leonard—to Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 1 as part of its year-long commemoration. Descension premieres on May 3 and will be in place through September 10. A press release gets into the nitty-gritty of the installation in a way only art-speak can:

Descension realizes a long-held aspiration of the artist to create a negative space alive with energy, continuously in process. 26-feet in diameter, the spiraling funnel of water is treated with an all-natural black dye, creating an opaque, seemingly endless hole. The whirling pool will be surrounded by a railing, inviting audiences to peer into its dark depths. Through this transformation of properties inherent to materials and objects, Kapoor blurs the boundaries between nature, landscape, and art, allowing us to perceive space differently.

The installation of Descension at Brooklyn Bridge Park marks the piece’s first appearance in North America, and carries on the park’s strong tradition as a destination for public art. Read the full press release here, and peek a video of Descension in action below.

• All Brooklyn Bridge Park coverage [Curbed]