Artist Anish Kapoor Sues NRA for Using ‘The Bean’ in Promotional Video
The artist behind Chicago’s iconic Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park filed a lawsuit against the National Rifle Association for copyright infringement after the organization’s refusal to remove an image of the work from a promotional video.
The complaint, filed Tuesday by British-born artist Anish Kapoor with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, calls on the NRA to stop running the video and pay any profits gained as a result of the video, statutory damages equivalent to $150,000 per infringement, and attorney fees.
Titled The Clenched Fist of Truth, the 2017 clip features a number of U.S. landmarks mixed with scenes of violence and civic unrest. It concludes with the pro-gun group urging supporters to standup to the mainstream media and “fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth.”
“[The video] plays to the basest and most primal impulses of paranoia, conflict and violence, and uses them in an effort to create a schism to justify its most regressive attitudes,” Kapoor wrote in March in an open letter condemning the unauthorized depiction of Cloud Gate.
“Hidden here is a need to believe in a threatening ‘Other’ different from ourselves. I am disgusted to see my work—in truth the sculpture of the people of Chicago—used by the NRA to promote their vile message.”
In addition to Kapoor’s open letter, the artist claims to have asked the organization to remove the image of Cloud Gate via repeated direct correspondence, according to the recent legal complaint.
Commonly known as “The Bean,” Chicago’s Cloud Gate was completed in 2006 and quickly became a symbol of the city and a favorite among visiting tourists. Kapoor officially registered the work with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2016.
The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.