It was an exciting end to 2012 at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, with the opening of the highly anticipated solo exhibition of work by British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor.
Kapoor is known for his large scale, monumental sculptural and installation works that challenge spatial perception. Having created work equivalent in scale to London’s Olympic stadium, Paris’ Grand Palais, and the Rockefeller Centre in New York, Kapoor’s first major Sydney exhibition had a lot to live up to – but in Art Almanac’s humble option, it has certainly met these expectations.
An efficient and intelligent use of the newly renovated MCA third level gallery, the exhibition includes several mirror works, which seem to endlessly distort and impossibly fragment the reflection of not only ourselves but also the gallery itself into new dimensions. False walls and black holes disappear into never-ending voids, perplexing audiences and tempting us to reach right into the gallery walls, while vibrant sculptural forms made purely of pigment stand boldly and confidently in the stark white gallery space, challenging notions of colour and form.
Then there’s Memory, a 24-tonne, rusty, bomb-shaped sculpture (installed by taking off part of the roof the MCA), which is seemingly bigger than the room that contains it and dwarfs the viewer both physically and also conceptually as it confronts the audience who cannot help but think of its destructive power. Don’t miss the first floor room of the exhibition which houses one of the more tactile and dynamic works, My Red Homeland. Here, 20 tonnes of wax and Vaseline mixed with pigment creates a giant circular disc on the gallery floor, with a motorized blade slowly re-shaping the sculpture before our eyes.
An impressive teaser for passers-by stands on the foreshore of Circular Quay – the 10-metre high Sky Mirror transforms and envelops us in the surrounding environment, and is a constant state of change depending on the weather. One of Kapoor’s most well-known pieces, it reflects the astounding simplicity that creates the mind-blowing nature of much of Kapoor’s work.
‘Anish Kapoor’ is a ground-breaking exhibition that challenges, intrigues and excites – no matter what your interest in art, all you need to enjoy this exhibition is yourself.
Until 1 April, 2013
Museum of Contemporary Art
Sydney
Images:
1000 Names, installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2012
My Red Homeland, installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2012
Sky Mirror, installation view, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2012
Photography by Anna Madeleine.
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