Anish Kapoor, "Orbit" viewing tower for the 2012 London Olympic Park (simulation). It will be the largest public art work in the UK. via Cultural Olympics.org

“Regardless of your aesthetic taste, the headline is that an artist and an architect have pulled this together, placing art at the centre of the Olympic park.”

via Culture @ the Olympics

Hard to argue with this, in one sense, and certainly better copy than this description of Siah Armajani’s Centennial Cauldron for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

“Mounted above a 132 foot tower and accessible by a 190 foot long bridge, the Centennial Olympic Cauldron has been likened to a McDonalds French fry package. It is essentially a piece of sheet steel rolled into a cone. Even though it is 21 feet, tall it appears dwarfed by the structure on which it stands.”

Siah Armajani, Centennial Olympic Cauldron (Atlanta), 1996

via Atlanta Public Art

And hopefully in London, they can avoid the “wardrobe malfunction” of the otherwise spectacular Vancouver Olympics torch lighting, which The Vancouverite mischievously described as

“Wayne Gretzky riding in the back of a pickup truck with the Torch, as drunken Vancouver Hillbillies chased him around the city. It was like we were doing the Torch relay in Arkansas or something. So awesome.”

Olympic torch lighting, opening night, 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

via The Vancouverite