Anish Kapoor is widely known for works that enter into a deep spiritual engagement with the viewer. He revels in the spectacular, creating visually overwhelming, attention-commanding sculpture. During his recent retrospective at London’s Royal Academy of Art, viewers entering the courtyard confronted a towering column of highly reflective spheres that prompted immediate surprise. Inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus, Tall Tree and the Eye ingeniously multiplies its surroundings, each sphere simultaneously reflecting the tower’s components and its location. Although vast in scale, the work has a distinctly transient presence, residing in a state of suspended equilibrium, as though ready to disperse with the next gust of wind. A joyous, celebratory, and audaciously captivating work, it offered an exemplary introduction to the exhibition…see the entire article in the print version of January/February’s Sculpture magazine.
