Sunday 22 November 2009

I Met My Future Husband Yesterday...

...Ok, so not in person, but viewing his work counts right? Right?


I finally got my act together and went to see the Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Royal Academy, and oh my, it was breathtaking. I've been swept off my feet, I'm in love. I've always had an art crush on Kapoor, but now I know it's forever. 


The exhibition takes over the 1st floor of the RA and showcases some of his major pieces over the past 10 years or so. The work itself ranged in size, scale, finish and ambition, and is some of the most engaging, exhilarating and captivating work i've ever seen.


I could rhapsodise for ages on each piece, but one of my favourites was Shooting into the Cornera simple, yet theatrical piece, which involved an air pressured cannon shooting large crimson wax rounds into the corner of room in the RA. The corner was entrenched in splattered red wax that oozed its way out of the room by the time I visited.  In the room before 'the corner' stands the cannon, and right behind the cannon stands the crowd, waiting for it to do its stuff (every 20 minutes). The room took on an eerie silence as a man (undoubtedly a frustrated actor), came to load the cannon with a profound sense of ceremony. The wait for the pressure to build in the cannon was as tense as any i've had, even the crowd issued an 'ooou' when the cannon finally fired.  And then that was it. The spell broken by a grumpy invigilator wanting us to leave so the next group could go in. 


I've been trying to find an image that truly depicts the magnificence of Svayambh, 2007, but I can't. This one isn't the one in the RA and doesn't really come close to what I saw. All I can say is that as another installation, it confounds your senses, your willingness to just wait and see, and cleverly challenges the RA's own sense of identity. 


I want to ramble on at length about the way Kapoor fills space, challenges dimensions and your sense of self, the erotic, sexual undertones of some of his forms, the way he draws you in, the way he hypnotises your senses, but like listening to your friend witter on about their new lover for the umpteenth time in a day, I appreciate it can get a little old, so...


...go see the show and enjoy. Oh and I'm planning a spring wedding, so wish us 'mazel tov' while you're there. 

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