ANISH KAPOOR AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY REVIEW

I have just been to see his exhibition at the Royal Academy in Piccadilly. Anish Kapoor was born in 1954 in Mumbai. He has lived in Britain since the 1970’s and he is a sculptor. He was the winner of the 1991 Turner prize and is now recognised as one of the most influential and significant artists of his generation – you can tell he must be really important by the total bloody mess he’s been allowed to make of the walls of the gallery and I believe it’s the first time a living artist has taken over all of the main galleries in the Royal Academy.

I felt a bit like a child in a sweet shop. Lovely big, bright, simple, tactile shapes everywhere that I just wanted to touch. Instead I had to sit on my hands so that I wasn’t tempted to stroke, poke, squish, smell, taste and just generally over-indulge in the senses.

As you walk in to the first room you see his works in pigment, which are wonderfully simple shapes covered in colour that could be taken right out of an Indian spice market. This pigment covers the objects and spills out over the floor around them.

“When I Am Pregnant” took us ages to find because it is just as if one of the walls itself has grown a small belly and again, you just want to reach out and stroke the swelling.

Another room has a cannon in it and every twenty minutes a solid lump of crimson paint is shot out with a loud bang. It might have looked quite frivolous when the installation began, but now it just looks dangerous and evil. Like a sea of blood is flowing from one room into another representing death and war and destruction and a bloody great cleaning bill for the Royal Academy (there are even splatters all over the ceiling – HOW are they going to get all that lot off?)

The mirrored room provided the most fun for children (and us). Just beautifully polished surfaces that gave us unexpected images and reflected constant change in a fascinating way.

Another room housed his most recent sculptor’s – it looked like a whole room of oversized worm casts made of cement. All very grey compared to the lush colour of the other rooms but fascinating nevertheless….

One of my favourite pieces was outside in the courtyard – I wonder if he would let me borrow it for Christmas – just like huge pile of giant polished baubles.