Red to Blue 2011, Anish Kapoor
You may with to use this page along with Merry-Go-Round Booklet p.14: I have got the ball : Merry-Go-Round booklet
A ball is a sphere: a symmetrical three-dimensional object with one face and no edges. Other examples are the earth, a marble, an orange and a bubble – can you think of more? The sphere is all-encompassing: it speaks of inclusion – like a ball game in the park.
Anish Kapoor (born 1954) is a British Indian artist who operates in three dimensions – a sculptor. He often plays with the sphere as a shape, experimenting with how the light interacts with its curved surfaces, sometimes reflected (using mirrors), sometimes being swallowed up altogether (using special colours). Kapoor once created a work that looked like a huge black circle painted on the floor. A tourist, thinking that’s what it was, stepped onto it – and fell into it! Whoops! It was really a deep hole in the ground…
His works (like Tall Tree and the Eye, 2009, pictured here) are usually ginormous in size and designed to be viewed from all angles, often being displayed in open spaces. Full of mystery, full of surprises, they invite continually changing perspectives, thus including the onlooker in the creative process:
“I am interested in the idea that objects are not necessarily as they might appear at first – illusions are lurking everywhere.”
Here is a time-lapse video of people enjoying his sculpture ‘Cloud Gate’ (known as The Bean) in Chicago Millennium Park: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=GBHrpd26JIw&feature=emb_logo
Where would you stand if you were viewing this work of art? What pose would you adopt for a photo?
Find out more:
Book:
You are Light – Aaron Becker
Video: Anish Kapoor talks about his work as an artist, and what inspires him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7sx0zsUjP4
Download a pdf version of this page : _Famous Artists and their Circles 3 Kapoor
Produced by An Lanntair as part of Full Circle Arts programme. Funded through the Aspiring Communities Fund with support from the European Social Fund.