Week 4-Anish Kapoor

Celebrated for his gigantic stainless steel 'Cloud Gate' sculpture in Chicago's Millennium Park, Anish Kapoor is changing the cultural environment with his public works.

1. Research Kapoor's work in order to discuss the ideas behind 3 quite different works from countries outside New Zealand.

1)The sculpture’s dark red colour suggests something ‘of the physical, of the earthly, of the bodily.’ Kapoor has commented, ‘I want to make body into sky'. Marsyasconfounds spatial perception, immersing the viewer in a monochromatic field of color. It is impossible to view the entire sculpture from any one position. Instead we experience it as a series of discrete encounters, in which we are left to construct the whole.

2)"Svayambh" is a deep red, wax-like block that will be moving almost imperceptibly along a set of tracks, which reach from one end of the entire eastern galleries to the other. Its appearance which is reminiscent of a train can be related back to Kapoor’s fascination with Andrei Konchalovsky’s film "Runaway Train" (1985), where two escaped convicts and a female railway worker find themselves trapped on a train with no brakes and nobody driving. Creating a red line through the building, "Svayambh" passes through two doorways, which form and seemingly force the block through their restrictive frames making it leave behind smeary traces of its material: a mixture of Vaseline, paint and wax. This enormous red mass reminiscent of compacted blood evokes an almost apocalyptic image. Interestingly a red heifer or "parah adumah" . .notably adom means red and dam means blood in Hebrew is often associated with the Apocalypse in Judaism.

"Svayambh" can be seen in direct correlation to a further site-specific work, a "wound" or slit of about 1.5 m that Kapoor will carve directly into a wall. Images such as these carry even greater connotations in a building with such a difficult history as the Haus der Kunst’s.2. Discuss the large scale site specific work that has been installed on a private site in New Zealand.

3. Where is the Kapoor's work in New Zealand? What are its form and materials?What are the ideas behind the work.

Kapoor's work Site-specific Work at The Farm, Kaipara Bay, New Zealand. The work looks like a huge trumpet. and it is 8m high and 25m long, and made of mild tube steel and tensioned fabric.The PVC membrane has a fleshy quality, which Kapoor describes as being ‘rather like a flayed skin'. The title refers to Marsyas, a satyr in Greek mythology, who was flayed alive by the god Apollo. The sculpture’s dark red colour suggests something ‘of the physical, of the earthly, of the bodily.’ Kapoor has commented, ‘I want to make body into sky'. Marsyasconfounds spatial perception, immersing the viewer in a monochromatic field of color. It is impossible to view the entire sculpture from any one position. Instead we experience it as a series of discrete encounters, in which we are left to construct the whole. (http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/kapoor/default.htm)

4. Comment on which work by Kapoor is your favourite, and why.

My favorite work is 'Tall Tree and The Eye' by Kapoor in the courtyard of the Royal Academy on September 22 , 2009 in London. The work is really amazing. For his work, he likes make make it big and red , also make it move and make some noise. 'Tall tree and the eye', it is made by 76 steel balls which are long 1 meter. They are stacked into a modern Tower of Babel. However, it looks like a ladder, or a child's bubble gum, or a christmas tree, also likes many mirror. In his hands, the original tone of cold metal , all with the transformation of the surrounding scenery. these metals would look like pure lake.