Anish Kapoor, Lisson Gallery, London

2.00

 

Is there something new from Kapoor amongst this multitude of new scuptural works spread across the various gallery spaces of two entire buildings? Not much. We can divide these work into the rough and the smooth.

The rough works, all violent, grey, earthquake-like ructions of one kind or another, are principally fashioned from pilings and heapings and bunchings and globbings of cement, worked by hand into explosions of orifice-like flowerets into which you can stare and stare if you so wish – oh, how Kapoor does love his voids!

Some adhere to the wall as if by some miracle of suspension; another, with a skin that looks positively elephantine, hangs in the air like a just-about-to-descend meteorite or a sculpture by the late Franz West; a third rises, leaning and lurching, from a crude, workaday plinth.

Their hand-wrenched, hand-wrested surfaces look like an aggressive riposte to the charge that Kapoor often seems to be too wedded to a kind of seamless smoothness. Are these snatchings from ancient geological landscapes? Are they riffs upon the idea of the honeycomb? A bit of one and the other.

Elsewhere, a series of earth-coloured sculptures on table tops seem to mimic re-shapings of the surface of the earth, blown into heaps, shaped into dunes or rearing up into nodes. Earth is a component of all these works, and it is the shiftings and the perpetual re-fashionings of the earth's surface that this group of works is exploring.

Elsewhere, slightly different things are happening. In one room, his ever first ready-made is on view, a piece called 'Organ' which consists of a huge grey diesel engine, with the kind of components you might expect from a diesel engine: fuel tanks, pumps, etc. What is this all about?

Is it a portrait of man the machine, complete with beating heart and exo-skeleton? For all its size, the emotional resonance is tiny. And in another space, there is what you might describe as a room-size installation - a circle of light projected down onto the surface of a concrete floor accompanied by a juddery, low-toned anxiety-inducing note.

Flitting elsewhere again, an entire series of wall-suspended, concave fibreglass hemispheres or bowls – they seem to be afloat against the wall - all highly coloured aquamarine, purple, yellow etc., catches us back to Kapoor the smooth manipulator of surfaces which seem to be playing tricks on us even as we look at them – concave or convex? What form is he playing with this time? So many, all at once. 

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
News in pictures
World news in pictures
Arts & Ents blogs

Brighton Fringe 2013 – Is everyone sitting uncomfortably?

Fancy seeing a play about serial killers? How about inviting a funeral director into your home for a...

The Fall ‘Darkness Visible’ – Series 1, episode 2

There are a good many moments in the second episode of this psychological thriller that deserve refl...

‘Vicious’ – Series 1, episode 4

The opening titles squeal ‘Never Can Say Goodbye…’. Oh Lord how I wish I could heave this series off...

       
Independent
Travel Shop
India and Shimla
14 nights from only £1899pp Find out more
Prague city break
Three nights from £199pp Find out more
4* Soreda hotel break, Malta
Seven nights all-inclusive from £399pp Find out more

ES Rentals

    The man who's eaten everywhere

    Few people know more about restaurants than James Pembroke, who only spent five mealtimes at home during his entire childhood.
    Eat Spam and carry on: Wartime pamphlets could teach us a thing or two about healthy, thrifty eating

    Eat Spam and carry on

    Wartime pamphlets could teach us a thing or two about healthy, thrifty eating
    The 10 Best salt and pepper sets

    The 10 Best salt and pepper sets

    Whether they're for everyday use or to make your dining table look just right, it's worth getting a stylish shaker...
    National archives: Edward VIII’s phone calls - and how MI5 bugged them

    Edward VIII’s phone calls - and how MI5 bugged them

    Newly unearthed papers reveal a shocking extra dimension to the constitutional crisis over monarch’s abdication
    Sent down at the Old Bailey: A tour of the world's most famous court

    Sent down at the Old Bailey

    A tour of the world's most famous court
    Hollywood's random acts of red-carpet kindness

    Hollywood's random acts of red-carpet kindness

    The Hangover actor Zach Galifianakis’s date for his movie premieres isn’t arm candy  – it’s his 87-year-old friend who he saved from homelessness
    British football scores an own goal

    British football scores an own goal

    Many managers barely survive a year in post. Martin Baker talks to experts who make a case for clubs using forensic business skills to find the best staff
    James Lawton: Sergio Garcia cracks as major fault line opens up again

    James Lawton

    Sergio Garcia cracks as major fault line opens up again
    Dylan Hartley: Northampton have spent the season proving all our critics wrong

    Dylan Hartley talks tough

    Northampton have spent the season proving all our critics wrong
    Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

    Watch out Watford: Here comes the secretive Bilderberg Group

    A meeting of global power brokers in a Hertfordshire hotel is exciting conspiracy theorists, but what are they really about?
    'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system': Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console

    'The ultimate all-in-one home entertainment system'

    Microsoft finally unveils its Xbox ONE console
    Plenty of Fish dating site founder pulls 'Intimate Encounters' option to ward off sleazy men

    Plenty of sleaze

    Dating website pulls intimate 'hook-up' section to curb harassment
    Inferno author Dan Brown 'honoured' to be invited to join the Freemasons

    The Freemasons’ Code

    Dan Brown reveals the message that told him door to the lodge is open
    Not secure any more: G4S boss heads for exit at last

    Not secure any more: G4S boss heads for exit at last

    Nick Buckles survived the Olympics débâcle and a £5bn bid fiasco but a profit warning finally triggered his downfall
    How to say ‘I’m a sellout’: Tumblr’s David Karp’s message of reassurance to his staff sounded very familiar

    How to say ‘I’m a sellout’

    Tumblr’s David Karp’s message of reassurance to his staff sounded very familiar