Pages

12 December 2009

Kapoor mania in London town

On its last day, the Anish Kapoor exhibition was open till midnight, reportedly with long queues. This show has proved very, very popular - because it has amazing objects/work in it - with showmanship as well as subtle messages and deep thinking. Perhaps because of this he got a lot of publicity in conjunction with the show - including a good tv programme (if you can use BBC iPlayer, it's interesting to watch; 18 days left at time of writing) - click here. There are lots of other media links on that page.
Otherwise, go to the Royal Academy website - you'll be amazed at what one artist can do to ruin a perfectly good art gallery - he shoots red waxy stuff out of a cannon - see that here. Afterwards, lots more links appear to other little videos to watch...

In one part of the gallery, a huge block of the red waxy stuff moves through the doorways between three rooms. In another room, cubes and other shapes are made out of mirrors - fascinating to watch people looking at themselves in the mirrors, they distort their bodies, always amusing.
Kapoor first got known for his piles of pure pigments - he considers colour to be a "thing", rather than a quality.
Outside the gallery is a tower of mirrored balls. He's also installed some huge convex mirrors, like satellite dishes, in various places around the world, to reflect the sky -- people who "hate modern art" have been amazed by them ... they come and watch the clouds moving across - a simple enough experience, but not something you ordinarily do in a busy life, especially in a city.

1 comment:

  1. Sadly I haven't managed to get to see this exhibition irl but I saw the BBC programme and have to admit I was quite worried about the possible damage to the fabric of the building ;) I have seen one of the sky mirrors and they are wonderful.

    ReplyDelete