Anish Kapoor

I visited an exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery by the artist Anish Kapoor. Kapoor's sculptures are characterised by his distinctive use of materials, sense of scale an an ongoing investigation into positive and negative space. He is fascinated by opposite forces: contrasts of light and dark, form and void, inside and outside, surface and depth, abstraction and figuration, reflection and absorption.



Turning the World Inside Out
1995
One of Kapoor's first highly polished mirrored works in which we see ourselves and our surroundings reflected. These reflections are distorted, warped by the curved surface and become unreadable. I want to use mirror as a material in my work. I plan to expose photographs on to mirror using liquid emulsion. I like how the viewer becomes part of the work. The piece looks different who ever is viewing it.



Her Blood
1998
Stainless Steel and lacquer
This was my favourite piece in the exhibition. Colour and mirrored surfaces come together in three huge concave mirrors, two of these are clear mirrors and the third is stained with red. The viewer becomes part of the piece, the reflection of the viewer changes depending on where they are stood. There are lots of rings on the mirrors. When I walked up to the mirrors I felt slightly disorientated as the rings looked like they were moving. It reminded me of when you look outside a window in a fast moving car. The colours from the reflections all blur together. The piece looks different from all angles. Standing opposite the mirrors your voice was echoed from their concave shapes. Your voice is thrown back to you aswell as your reflection, engaging our senses. The mirrors were very mesmerising.



Untitled
1995
Stainless Steel
The piece reminded me of a vortex, i felt like it was pulling me into the dark void in its centre. It looks like it is never ending, a black hole. Different reflections could be seen in the mirrored surface. Similar to mirrors at the fairground, the viewers body is distorted from the curved mirror.



Void
1994
Fibreglass and pigment
A blue fibreglass form which hangs on the wall of the gallery. Looking at the piece in profile it looks as if it is never ending, it is hard to tell when it stops. It looks flat however looking at it from the side it is sphere shaped.



Adam
1988-89
Sandstone and Pigment
A blue recess is carved out of a large piece of freestanding sandstone. Kapoor had the idea of emptying out all of the pieces content and created something that is an empty form. However, he does not empty out all of the content at all, the content is their in a way that is more surprising than if he had tried to make a content.



When I Am Pregnant
1992
Fibreglass, Wood and Paint
It looks like it is not actually there, it is only made evident from the shadow in the bottom right corner. I felt as though my mind was playing tricks on me, I was confused as the work appears when you look at it from the side but then disappears when you look at it face on, distorting your mind.