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Anish Kapoor review
Hayward Gallery, LondonButcher bags, human sacrifice and cavernous black holes … in a world of dry art this stunning exhibition forces us to confront religion and mortality
TL;DR
- Anish Kapoor's exhibition at the Hayward Gallery explores religion and mortality through provocative art installations.
- Works like "Plastic Sacrifice I, II, III" use transparent PVC to cover visceral, three-dimensional "entrails."
- The exhibition features optical illusions, including black holes that play with perception and invisibility using Vantablack.
- A significant piece is "Mount Moriah at the Gate of the Ghetto," a massive, upside-down mountain dripping with red paint, referencing Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac.
- The show culminates in depictions of mass slaughter and sacrifice, influenced by Aztec imagery, with accompanying paintings suggesting ritual expiation.
- Kapoor's work is described as a "divine bloodbath" and a "metaphysical rollercoaster ride," evoking strong emotions from pleasure and awe to fear and nausea.
- The artist's thesis suggests religion begins in sacrifice, with blood and spirit being interconnected.
- The exhibition is noted for its dramatic scale and confrontation of themes often avoided in contemporary art.