Aug 6

Aug 6 Anish Kapoor at the Hayward Gallery

Sir Anish Kapoor came to the attention of a wider British audience with his typically striking design of the ArcelorMittal Orbit, the huge, playfully looping observation tower constructed at the Olympic Park as part of the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Like so many others, I became fascinated by the work of this prolific British Indian sculptor and grab the opportunity to see his often monumental, always visually challenging and thought-provoking, pieces whenever I can. (A memorable installation of his works at Houghton Hall was one of the first exhibitions I went to after lock-down). So to be able to go to the Hayward Gallery on London’s Southbank, the venue for his first major exhibition 30 years ago, and see a magnificent selection of his sculptures and paintings was a special treat.

Kapoor’s approach to his work has always been to challenge the nature of space and our perception of presence and emptiness. Never one to shy away from scale or physical detail, his pieces are intended not only to be looked at but experienced. And boy do you experience the works which, in some cases quite literally, fill all the galleries and outdoor spaces at the Hayward.

See what I mean! Here’s another, inspired by Mount Moriah, where God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Rock formations and the colour red feature strongly in the pieces on show. A visit to Uluru, the sandstone monolith in the centre of Australia, which Kapoor described as ‘the most religious place I’ve ever been to’, was the influence behind this sprawling, otherworldly piece, with it’s sharp rectangular aperture looking like some kind of doorway into the unknown.

For Kapoor, red is a colour infused with emotion and ceremonial associations (see above) and he said he wanted the red of this piece, entitled Ha Makom, derived from the Hebrew phrase meaning ‘The Place’, to ‘occupy the whole space of your vision’. Safe to say he achieves his aim.

Vision and and colour are showcased in a gallery that focuses predominantly on a material that has been created using nanotechnology. Ventablack, which Kapoor owns exclusive usage commercial rights, absorbs up to 99% of visual light making it the blackest black possible. So when he uses it on pieces that are placed on the walls and floors it’s quite literally impossible to see their dimensions.

It’s extraordinarily unsettling not to know whether a circle on the floor is just that, or an actual hole (I won’t spoil it by telling you which it is, which I only found out by asking one of the attendants). Ditto different shapes on the walls. And even the ones you can see from curve outwards, deny you what you expect to be the corresponding internal curvature view, instead appearing to be completely flat no matter how hard you look.

There’s a video on the Heydays Substack newsletter of another of the pieces where you can see how extraordinary and disconcerting this is.

Spacial awareness is played with in a different way with wall-mounted pieces that use curvature and reflection, two of Kapoor’s other favourite mechanisms to challenge our sense of space and out surroundings.

Both those themes are probed at much greater scale in the two giant mirrored, stainless steel sculptures that occupy the two outdoor terraces in the gallery, which reflect visitors and their surroundings in intriguing changing perspectives as you move around them.

Tsunami by Anish Kapoor at the Hayward Gallery

Tsunami by Anish Kapoor at the Haywayd Gallery

Cloak by Anish Kappor at the Hayward Gallery

Another room features pieces and paintings in which Kapoor examines and explores the interior of the body, often in uncomfortably direct ways. These are not pieces for the squeamish so I won’t show you pictures of them. Just bear in mind they’re in Room 5 if you should visit.

The sculptor’s playfulness is eye-catchingly showcased in two witty watery sculptures outside the main entrance. One of which alternates between being soaked from above