Anish Kapoor opens at MoCAUP in Shenzhen, China
5 April 2021
This comprehensive presentation at Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning (MOCAPE), on view from 2 April – 4 July 2021, spans the full breadth of Anish Kapoor's practice and presents some of the most celebrated and substantial works of the last thirty-five years — from his iconic wax sculptures, paintings and stainless steel pieces, to his models of past and potential pavilions, sculptures and landworks.
The exhibition includes Kapoor’s mirrored steel work S-Curve (2006), which morphs from concave to convex, bending and twisting its surroundings, turning the world upside down before restoring order and revealing a clear reflection of the visitors. Viewpoints are further shifted by a curated selection of Kapoor’s reflective stainless steel sculptures, including Stave (2013) and Non-Object (Door) (2008). Rather than simply reversing or mirroring their subjects, these works challenge viewers’ perceptions by absorbing or dissolving figurative imagery and the fabric of the building entirely, simultaneously denying bodily presence while suggesting an all-enveloping connection with the environment and each other.
Kapoor’s use of raw paint pigment – a material formed of pure colour that soaks up light and refutes the surface scrutiny allowed by his polished surfaces –was the foundation for a seminal series of pigment sculptures that are on view in the museum's galleries. Central to the exhibition is My Red Homeland (2003), a large-scale, self-generating installation. Here, a metal blade is mechanically driven around an open circular container filled with 25 tons of molten red wax. Over the course of an hour the blade slowly orbits the deep-red matter, appearing as if to churn, form and reform the wax.
This follows the 2019 edition at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) Museum and Taimiao Art Museum of the Imperial Ancestral Temple, by the walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing. Developed over a number of years, the major exhibition illustrates an important moment of cultural exchange and explores how Kapoor’s visual language can create shared experiences globally.
