The artist behind “The Bean” sculpture in Chicago said it’s “utterly horrific” that his artwork is being used as a backdrop for federal immigration agencies’ photos.
Anish Kapoor, the 71-year-old British sculptor, said he was “deeply horrified and saddened” to see a pack of Customs and Border Protection posing around Cloud Gate, the name of the famous sculpture, in the Windy City’s Millennium Park.
As the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown in the city, photos captured dozens of uniformed CPB agents standing in snow as they gathered outside the reflective monument on Monday. The crowd gathered around 7 a.m. — some were armed, Block Cub Chicago reported.
“The Bean and the whole of Millennium Park is a site of community, both for residents of Chicago, and all those hundreds of thousands of people who visit every year,” he told The Daily Beast. “It draws people from different cultures, from different backgrounds. It brings them together to enjoy public art, public beauty. And of course, the Bean reflects—quite literally—the city of Chicago, which is a melting pot of culture.”
“Border Patrol, and Donald Trump’s entire immigration policy, stands for the exact opposite of this. So to see these people who are going out there and targeting migrants using it for a self-congratulatory photo-op is horrifying.”
Around Cloud Gate on Monday, Department of Homeland Security photographers snapped photos as an agent shouted: “Everyone say, ‘Little Village!’” It’s a Mexican-American neighborhood in the Southwest part of the city, nine miles from the sculpture. The group obliged, the outlet reported, shouting back: “Little Village!”
DHS didn't respond to The Independent's questions about why agents were standing in front of the sculpture, but spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin touted the operation’s success, adding: "Celebrating with Chicagoans that since Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago started, homicides decreased 16%, shootings decreased 35% (the lowest in four years), robberies decreased 41%, vehicular carjackings decreased 48%, and transit crime decreased 20%. Thanks to DHS law enforcement, Chicago has experienced the fewest summer murders since 1965!"
Agents were in Little Village over the weekend, where they were “accosted by a hostile crowd” that threw bricks, according to DHS. Some in the crowd threw bricks and paint cans while they tried to arrest someone while a man driving in a Jeep “fired multiple rounds,” the agency said. No federal agents were injured, while 8 U.S. citizens and one illegal immigrant were arrested.
“I’ve been to Chicago many times, and I found Little Village to be a sweet and lovely place. That these agents are chanting ‘Little Village’ in this way, in what is nothing less than a fascist battle cry of intimidation to the Mexican Americans who live there as part of the community of Chicago, is just awful, awful,” Kapoor told the Daily Beast.
The federal agents took photos until around 7.30 a.m., when they left the shiny landmark, Block Club Chicago reported.
A park worker told the outlet’s photographer that Kapoor is known to “sue” anyone who uses his pieces in ways he disagrees with. For example, in 2017, Kapoor said the National Rifle Association used the Chicago sculpture in one of its videos without his consent. “The NRA’s nightmarish, intolerant, divisive vision perverts everything that Cloud Gate – and America – stands for,” he wrote on Instagram. Both parties settled in 2018.
“I’m in conversations about whether there’s space here to do something similar [to the NRA],” the artist told the Daily Beast. “I don’t know whether there is, to be perfectly straightforward, but I find it utterly horrific.”
In September, CBP’s social media accounts posted a series of scenic photos of agents — armed with guns — in a boat on the Chicago River, including some in front of Trump Tower, along with the caption: “Where streets end, our Marine Unit begins. On the Chicago River, CBP leadership stays vigilant. Our ability to patrol on the water extends the reach of enforcement.”
Government officials told the Chicago Sun-Times that the show of force was part of Operation Midway Blitz, an operation based in Chicago aimed at arresting illegal immigrants with criminal backgrounds. At the time, 42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly called it a “photo op.”
“It seems like a really cheap photo op for President Trump to flex his ICE muscles with his hotel sign in the background likely,” Reilly told the Chicago Sun-Times.
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