Sir Anish Kapoor, the Turner Prize winning artist has unveiled his candle design for 70 candles for 70 years project to honour the victims of the Holocaust. The Internationally celebrated sculptor’s elegant creation has the candle wick surrounded by three wax walls and a ceiling to allow the flame to be only visible from the front. The design was exclusively made for Holocaust Memorial Day 2015 and distributed to 70 events across the UK to mark the 70 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, on 27 January 1945. “It is hard sometimes to memorialise the suffering [in the Holocaust],” Sir Anish told the Sunday Times. “That’s why I think the candle is appropriate. The candle is a curious space, but it has a narrative and I hope I have captured it.”
The candles will symbolically link the 70 events taking place in each corner of the UK, ensuring that Holocaust Memorial Day has as far a reach as possible and that each of the specially chosen 70 activities are connected to the main UK Commemorative Event in central London where six of the candles will be lit. Sir Anish, who was born in India himself, explained how he was honoured to get the commission. “It is very important to remember the terrible things we do to human beings like murdering six million Jews in the Holocaust,” he said.
Anish Kapoor is one of the most influential sculptors of his generation. He was born in Bombay in 1954 and lives and works in London. He studied at Hornsey College of Art (1973–77) followed by postgraduate studies at Chelsea School of Art, London (1977–78). Recent major solo exhibitions include Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul (2013); Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2013); Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2012); Le Grand Palais, Paris (2011); Mehboob Studios, Mumbai and National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (2010); Royal Academy of Arts (2009) and the Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London (2002). He represented Britain at the 44th Venice Biennale (1990), for which he was awarded the Premio Duemila. He won the Turner Prize in 1991 and has honorary fellowships from the London Institute and Leeds University (1997), the University of Wolverhampton (1999) and the Royal Institute of British Architecture (2001). His major permanent commissions include Cloud Gate (2004) for the Millennium Park in Chicago and the Arcelor Mittal Orbit for the London 2012 Olympic Park. He was elected Royal Academician in 1999 and he was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2013.
Candle images © Anish Kapoor 2014