Serpentine

Anish Kapoor

26 Sep 2010 - 13 Mar 2011

Anish Kapoor
Non-Object (Spire) 2007
Installation view Kensington Gardens, London
(28 September 2010 – 13 March 2011)
© 2010 Tim Mitchell
ANISH KAPOOR
Turning the World Upside Down
Kensington Gardens
28 September 2010 – 13 March 2011

'One of art's functions is to make us see the world with fresh eyes and in this Kapoor succeeds triumphantly. This is art that cast a spell of rare enchantment, transforming a walk in the park into something rich and strange' The Daily Telegraph

In a groundbreaking partnership, The Royal Parks and the Serpentine Gallery present a major exhibition of outdoor sculptures by internationally acclaimed London-based artist Anish Kapoor. Showcasing a series of the artist’s most important stainless-steel works, which have never previously been shown together in London, the exhibition is the first contemporary sculpture project to be sited in Kensington Gardens for over 25 years.

In this particular setting, Kapoor’s works play with the visitor’s desire to get close to them: while Sky Mirror, Red, 2007, is placed in Kensington Gardens’ Round Pond, appearing to float on the water, Sky Mirror, 2006, is viewed across the Gardens’ Long Water, seeming barely to touch the ground. Non-Object (Spire), 2007, seems to vanish into thin air, while C-Curve, 2007, causes the visitor to pause and contemplate the often-overlooked formality of Kensington Gardens’ broad avenues, designed by Charles Bridgeman. This sculpture engages viewers directly, presenting their distorted and inverted reflections; in this way we become completers of the work, which is transformed at that moment from an object to a symbolic space.

Anish Kapoor was born in Bombay in 1954 and has lived in London since the early 1970s when he studied at Hornsey College of Art and Chelsea School of Art and Design. Over the past twenty years he has exhibited extensively in London and worldwide. His solo shows have included Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2009; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 2008; Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2007; Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2003; Hayward Gallery, London, 1998 and Tate Gallery, London, 1990.
 

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