1. “Drip” (2008, the ‘red’ show)…The work is a giant, reflective, glossy red drip. It is displayed on a large clean white wall; it appears to be an enormous blood drop- “ready to yield to gravity”. The sculpture is made of resin and paint. Kapoor described the colour red as a strong revealer of depth and darkness; he also mentions that it is obviously the colour of blood and body- consolidating what I read from the work to be true. On the colour red Kapoor comments that it is a “contradictory colour; in one sense, it is violent; in the other, ‘delicate and fragile’ ”. This is true for this work as blood can be interpreted as a very gruesome, very ‘human’ material thing yet the work is somewhat inhuman in its stunning perfection. I had come across Anish Kapoors’ “Cloud Gate” previously in a semester 1 blog and found the use of reflection very memorable… the addition of a bold red colour surprised me. The red show was exhibited in New York in 2008.
2. “Svayambh” (First exhibited in Munich 2007)…consistent in the shocking red colour as the work described above, however the concept, materials and aesthetic reading vary greatly. The work is a train made of wax; windowless, dense and blood red. The train moves slowly through the exhibition room doorways, shutting out the light; smearing the bloody wax along the tracks and leaving a messy buildup in the doorways. The work was linked to the Holocaust by German critics, who associated it with the transport of Jews to the death camps which is a very interesting interpretation and adds some serious gravity to my reading of the work. the title ‘Svayambh’ is derived from Sanskrit meaning ‘born by itself’- I think the train reveals this through its slow transformation as it moves through the gallery. As it moves along on its own it is reshaped with every doorway it passes through… being reborn in its own right. The work is different to his other works that I have seen for a number of reasons. Firstly it is the complete opposite of the flawless, clean works which are done with mirroring and reflection. Secondly the work is an ongoing process- not simply a refined form on display. He is not “trying to say something; but to let it occur”. Thirdly the wax is a very interesting use of material as it can be quite volatile/messy and I imagine would need to be regulated carefully.
3. “when I am pregnant” (1992; exhibited in San Paolo Brazil 2006 )…The work is an installation in the ‘Ascension’ collection. It consists of two manipulations on a white wall, one convex bump on the wall next to the sister work that is a concave indentation in the wall of equal size. It is made from fiberglass, with such a matte finish that at first it is hard to decipher its form, much like an optical illusion. ‘when I am pregnant’ is quite easy to read in terms of the intention, it alludes to a ‘baby bump’; i.e. the form of a pregnant woman. The sister work however is much harder for me to figure out. Other than being the opposite of its sister form, the concave part does not really suggest anything but emptiness in my opinion. This is what I find interesting, as the opposite of pregnant is not pregnant but this work goes beyond this and can be interpreted in many different ways.
2. “The Farm” is a large scale work in New Zealand is located on a farm in Kaipara Bay- which is North of Auckland. The total structure reminds me of a gigantic red trumpet, sitting proudly in the grooves of the farms hills (the hills actually cut to accommodate the work). The sculpture provides a ‘kaleidoscopic’ view of Kaipara Harbor at the vertical ellipse end and the specially contoured rolling hills of “The Farm” from the horizontal ellipse.
3. Thirty-two longitudinal mono-filament cables provide displacement and deflection resistance to the wind loads while assisting with the fabric transition from horizontal ellipse, to a perfect circle at midspan, through to the vertical ellipse at the other end. The fabric stretched over the framework is a heavy-duty, custom deep red PVC coated polyester by Ferrari textiles. Fabrication and installation of the art piece is by Structurflex Ltd., of Henderson, Auckland, New Zealand, overall engineering is by Structure Design Ltd., membrane engineering by Compusoft Engineering Ltd. The idea behind the work is based on Kapoors’ fascination with the language of engineering turning into the language of the body; a visual language that creates the idea of skin from an artificial fabric.
4. I am interested in all of Anish Kapoors’ work. It is too difficult to choose one because they are all fascinating, and I really want to see them in person. Kapoors’ wax train ‘Svayambh’ amazes me as it is a work in progress, and has a different mood to his mirror works which are clean, finished and immaculate. the wax is a very interesting material and communicates many strong ideas, I love the way that it messes up the exhibition space so that it is all about the work; so this is possibly my favourite work of his. I also love the canon that shoots wax onto the clean white wall in that same show…another work that is always progressing.
I'm not interested in composition. I want to find absolute conditions. If I make something red it's not red in relation to something else. It's red in the same way that when you put your hand into the water it is wet. So I want the red as red as water is wet.- Anish Kapoor
The simplicity of his art is so appealing to me, and the scale so impressive it makes me want to go see all his collections in person. I love the fact that he is not scared to think big; his work blurs the boundaries between architecture, art and sculpture. And best of all he knows what his work is about, he is an honest artist who knows the difference between doing experimental fun works (where he admits the process is a surprise to him) and more intentional works; which he accounts for in perfect detail. I cannot wait to go traveling and see some of his work.
I'm very interested in the way they that they seem to reverse, affirm and then negate… . To place the viewer with these blinding mirrors in this narrow passage… this transitional space… somehow at an oblique angle to the mirrors' 'visuality' or the viewer's visibility is to be caught in the contest of mirrors. They cancel each other out in one moment and yet demanding that they be looked at from a strange, oblique perspective… .Where time and space are seemingly absent, at a standstill…, in that narrow passage, paradoxically there is a restlessness, an unease… . As I said before, a transitional movement – reverse, affirm, negate.- Anish Kapoor
References
http://www.anishkapoor.com/works/index.htm
http://www.anishkapoor.com/works/gallery/2008drip/index.htm
