r/oddlyterrifying 11d ago

Scientist holding a basketball covered with Vantablack, the world's blackest substance.

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23.6k Upvotes

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3.9k

u/Beard_of_8bit 11d ago

I want to paint an entire room in it, windows and all.

44

u/owningxylophone 11d ago

Unless your name is Anish Kapoor you’re shit outta luck.

34

u/Bubbly_Magnesium 11d ago

Stuart Semple's Awesome Pink Color

Quote:

Hi Everyone, I’ve released my own brand of pink paint, ‘PINK’, it’s the world’s pinkest pigment. PINK is available from www.culturehustle.com – to everyone but Anish Kapoor.

26

u/SoulsBorneGreat 10d ago

I love the note on everything on that site:

Note: By adding this product to your cart you confirm that you are not Anish Kapoor, you are in no way affiliated to Anish Kapoor, you are not purchasing this item on behalf of Anish Kapoor or an associate of Anish Kapoor. To the best of your knowledge, information and belief this material will not make it's way into the hands of Anish Kapoor.

24

u/AnAverageTransGirl 10d ago

Stuart Semple is a petty grifter who deliberately misrepresented the truth of vantablack to make a quick buck off someone who was already ill-received in the art world, and rapidly spiraled into both men being massive dickheads to each other for no god damn reason, with Semple still pulling this shit today whereas Kapoor's pulled back years ago.

This stuff was never intended as a paint, is not produced in quantities large enough to serve more than one person as such, and was only ever used as such by Kapoor once or twice. He was only permitted access to it so that someone could demonstrate the sheer richness of how dark the substance is. It's intended for lining the interiors of long-distance space telescopes and similar devices to reduce light pollution and allow clearer imaging of distant bodies.

14

u/Bubbly_Magnesium 10d ago

This seems spot on.

The pettiness is amusing to the random observer, like me, so it's enjoyable in and of itself.

3

u/Teract 10d ago

It doesn't change the fact that no other artist can approach the company and pay to get something coated in Vantablack. The fact Kapoor has only used the coating a handful of times makes the circumstances worse.

4

u/AnAverageTransGirl 10d ago

...Did you miss the part where I said it was never intended as a paint and isn't produced in quantities to realistically serve as such? It doesn't even adhere well to anything, that's part of why he was so sparing with its use.

The company privatized it for their own sake, not because of greed.

1

u/Teract 10d ago

kapoor wrote them a check, that's why it was privatized. The original Vantablack isn't what was privatized, they engineered a second release (V-VIS) that was far less expensive to create and apply. That is what was privatized. Kapoor did use it commercially in a watch design that sells for almost $100K.

My point still stands.