‘The Popsicle' cometh

Get ready, Bean. In a few months, The Popsicle is stopping by.

Canadian Gordon Halloran has been hired to create a sweeping, multi-colored ice canvas - 95 feet long and 12 feet high -- near the famous reflecting sculpture at Millennium Park . Considering that Anish Kapoor's mirrored orb, "Cloud Gate," has been re-titled The Bean by locals, Halloran said he anticipates Chicagoans will dub his frozen work "The Popsicle."

Just don't try to lick it, kids.

"They might get their tongues stuck," the 60-year-old artist said during a news conference Thursday announcing his display, which will run through the month of February.

The forthcoming work is part of Halloran's continuing series of "Paintings Below Zero." The Chicago presentation will be his first U.S. installation and also his largest.

The process of creating it will go something like this: The artist and his staff will make frozen sheets by combining smaller patches of colored ice. The large segments will be mounted vertically on refrigerated metal panels to create a wall.

Free-standing, monolithic ice "shards" will be clustered on one end of the display. The appearance and texture of the ice is expected change, depending on weather conditions.

Halloran, an illustrator for much of his career, said he was directed to the medium of ice in 1991 while watching a hockey practice. He said the experience prompted him to recall how he made backyard ice rinks as a boy in rural Ontario .

"I remember … being obsessed with the quality of the surface of the ice, the stamping down of the snow, the cold experience at night, the moon shining off that surface," Halloran said. "I think the obsession about it and the contact with the mystery of that ice became something really important to me."

His inspiration for the Chicago work, he said, comes from the idea of "a giant glacial wall that's kind of moving toward the ocean." In addition, he cited the cliff-like surface of building facades along the stretch of Michigan Avenue that borders Millennium Park . Halloran also will embed an ice painting within the park's winter ice rink.

The frozen-art project, which is supported by public and private funds, is expected to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. It will anchor a larger cultural celebration, " Museum of Modern Ice," and a winter tourism campaign.

"I never thought I'd be anticipating February this fast in Chicago ," said Chicago Ald. Walter Burnett Jr., who was among the dignitaries at Thursday's announcement.

For more information, go to www.museumofmodernice.org <http://www.museumofmodernice.org/> .

Mike Ramsey can be reached at (312) 857-2323 or ghns-ramsey@sbcglobal.net <http://us.f812.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=ghns-ramsey@sbcglobal.net> .