Fresh Eyes, Endless Voids
Fresh Eyes, Endless Voids
You feel inferior to it, as it challenges "the visitor’s sense of scale.” Suddenly, you become self-aware of the size of your own body in its presence.
The next room draws you into a void where the eye fails to register depth. The absence of shading creates an eerie sensation that the piece is tracking your position, luring you deeper into its infinite emptiness and optically deceives you. I found myself moving backwards, forwards, side to side, as if trying to escape its inevitable pull.
To the right, hang three masses of organ-like entrails, sheathed in silky blood and encased in tight PVC, their blood thirsty quality repulsive.
These pieces to me were reminiscent of Andy Hughes’ Red Creeper, where coastal seaweed’s invasive presence, with its thread-like texture mirrored the pandemic’s grip on the psyche and uncertainty. Similarly, Kapoor’s Plastic Sacrifice I, II, III although contained, exposes the raw nature of mortality, and echoing the loss of control through oxidisation.
Burple to Red is a concave mirror that distorts the surrounding room, and it comes with a surprise of its own.
An invigilator demonstrated the mirror’s hidden trait to two young boys and their mother: the work responds to sound. Whispering towards the mirror triggered an effect in which the voice seemed to circle whoever stood behind the whisperer, the whisper grew louder, mimicking the immersive quality of a surround sound system.
Anish Kapoor’s exhibition at the Hayward Gallery was an immersive, albeit disturbing, experience that made me feel involved with the installations not just as a viewer but as a participant, expanding my curiosity at every turn and making it one of the most inviting and experiential exhibitions I’ve visited.
The exhibition left me thinking about visual texture, and how that can change a user’s perception of a product.
Adriana Bule is a Loughborough University graduate and currently a HH Intern.
