Review: ANISH KAPOOR : Royal Academy

If Anish Kapoor wanted to shoot over the bow of The Royal Academy he certainly sent out his scouts with great aplomb.

Free - for all to see - his “Tall Tree and the Eye” commands the forecourt and proudly proclaims Kapoor’s status as both an indoor and outdoor artist, questioning the roll of art, the whole experience of looking and the perception of the viewer within the environment or establishment in question.

Before entering The Royal Academy - which is well worth doing - you’re invited to engage in this playful dialogue which Kapoor has echoed masterfully in many public sights around the world, most notably Chicago.

Bubbles of shinny steel lift your eyes high towards the sky and in so doing reflect back the enclosed architecture of The Royal Academy courtyard and you within it. You can not escape. You’re in the picture, in every bubble you look at!

As you walk around this tall tree you surrender your presence while looking to its reflection, questioning the status of the eye. You become aware of how this process of looking positions you as in an act of surveillance – reflecting your position back within the imposing architecture.

Who is in charge here? What is going on?

And then you enter The Royal Academy proper with all its references and history. All those wonderful exhibitions of paintings that had their status reinforced by default of their inclusion within this institution. And of course, I’m reminded of the hugely successful ‘Sensation’ partnership with the Saatchi Gallery back in ‘97.

While Kapoor had emerged prior to that YBA period he could hardly be described - back then - as an old British artist? In any case, while he was not part of that team he’s now here, on his own terms.

While the RA flyer accompanying each visitors ticket reminds us of Kapoor’s statement in that - it is the very experience of acknowledging the not knowing of ‘what to say’ that the artists discovers his role, we are prompted towards the imaginative conversation we are about to experience as we climb the stairs through the many wonderful archways of this building.   

I remember walking through these beautiful rooms and arches twelve years ago with a feeling of something very culturally current. I remember being stopped on my tracks – in awe of how well the Markus Harvey painting of Myra Hindley had been curated with these arches framing the work as you approached it. Of course, up close you could see the multiple stencils of a child’s hand that stamped the image. Unlike Lady Macbeth’s hands they were not covered in blood but their message was. So much so that members of the public defaced the work by pelting all sort of things at it.  

I remember this as I waited for the gun to load for ‘Shooting into the Corner’ which rather than defacing the surface of an art work pelts red wax through an arch on to a white gallery wall.

So, what’s going on? What is been said here?   

Then crossing to the other side of the gallery you witness the forty tonne ‘Svayambh’. A massive cell of red wax looking like congealed, hallowed blood as it silently moves through the arches of the gallery. One is almost humbled as through some kind of religious experience in witnessing this conversation of bleeding or fitting in of form.

Form, questioning and laying bare the dialogue between the status of the institution [or the white cube as it is commonly referred to] and the gesture of the artist. If the house be the body then the work be the blood. One can not survive without the other if it is to live.

There’s a lot to be impressed with here.

A room of convex mirrored sculptures certainly works well during the day as the buildings glass ceiling exaggerates the illusion of space while all sort of body configurations get played out in natural light on its floor.

But for me, what’s really incredible about this exhibition is the absence of painting other than - of course ‘When I Am Pregnant’ and ‘Yellow’ which have more of an instillation feel about them.

On my way out I glanced at “Tall Tree and the Eye” and whispered – interesting conversation. Sensational!

Miss it at your peril.

Mary Hadhad.