Exhibition Review: Anish Kapoor
October 12, 2009
Turner Prize winner Anish Kapoor is showcasing his ground-breaking works at the Royal Academy of Arts.
They are ground-breaking in the sense that they aim to redefine ‘sculptures’. Svayambh (2007), which literally means ‘self-generated’ in Sanskrit, involves movement as the gigantic block of red wax moves unceasingly and almost imperceptibly along five galleries and ‘self-creates’ a mass of red residue on the wall.
According to the exhibition guide, ‘the sculpture uses the building to shape its form, rather as Renaissance sculptors used moulds to cast their wax models in bronze; and yet here, the medium is the wax itself.’
This kind of ‘self-generation’ is also manifested in the focal point of this exhibition – Shooting into the Corner (2008-2009). As every 20 minutes a shell of red wax (weighing nearly 20 pounds) is fired by a cannon to another room in the speed of 50 miles per hour, the red wax accumulates on the wall and generates a massive ‘painting’ allusive to the works by abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock.
Whilst the exhibition guide suggests that this work ‘merges the boundaries of painting and sculpture’, I personally think that it is the sum of painting, sculpture, and performance. The viewers’ gathering behind the cannon and anticipating for the firing is like what the audience do before the commencement of a concert. And at the very moment when the cannon fires, both the aural and visual senses of the viewers are shocked by the deafening noise of the firing and the lightning speed of the wax. Therefore, this work is actually the mixture of a static work (sculpture/painting) and a live show. (you can even view it live through the ‘Live Gallery Webcam’ on the Royal Academy’s website: http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/anish-kapoor/live-gallery-webcam,99,MA.html)
The other day I and my friend were discussing what ‘creativity’ is. I said a work is creative when it pushes boundaries or limits of the realm it belongs. Without a doubt, Kapoor’s exhibition at the Royal Academy has illustrated this perfectly.
