ANISH KAPOOR.
Shooting into the Corner
till April 19, 2009
MAK Exhibition Hall
Stubenring 5
1010 Vienna
Austria
Anish Kapoor, born 1954 in Bombay (today Mumbai), ranks among the most important sculptors of the present. His exhibition at the MAK presents new room-filling wax works of the artist who lives in London today. The central work featured in the show, “Shooting into the Corner, 2008/09″, is on view in the large Exhibition Hall; the pieces “Past, Present, Future, 2006″, “Push-Pull II, 2008/09″, and “Shadow Corner, 2008/09″ are shown in adjacent exhibition rooms. The three works of 2008/09 were created especially for the MAK exhibition.
“Shooting into the Corner” consists of a cannon developed by Kapoor together with a team of engineers. A pneumatic compressor shoots 11-kilogram balls of wax into the corner across the room; all in all, 20 tons of wax will be “fired away” throughout the exhibition run. Loud aggression on the one hand and silent growth on the other give the piece tension, sensuality, and compelling power.
In “Past, Present, Future”, by contrast, material is taken off. A motor-driven steel plate peels off layer after layer of a blood-red huge hemisphere of wax with one move of the arm taking a full hour.
A similar principle is used in the object “Push-Pull II” which also consists of a semicircle and a cut-out rectangle. Here, too, material is removed, but the oversized metal scraper moves across the mass of wax a couple of times only before it is locked in position with a metal suspension.
“Shadow Corner” again is a work in progress that plays on the encounter of a square and a semicircular segment. A negative form is continuously hollowed out by an automatic arm in an extremely slow movement.
Confrontation with the public is becoming increasingly more important for Kapoor. Despite the apparently simple shapes, viewers are unsettled in their perception and forced to complement, or continually relativize, their impressions with new views over and again.
Kapoor, who studied at a number of renowned art schools in India and in England, counts among his influences works by artists such as Joseph Beuys and Barnett Newman as well as motifs from Far-Eastern culture. In 1990, he represented Great Britain at the 44th Venice Biennale and in 1992, he participated in the documenta IX in Kassel. In 1991, he was awarded the prestigious Turner Prize.
Lecture
ANISH KAPOOR: Shooting into the Corner
Thursday, March 26, 2009, 7 p.m.
MAK Lecture Hall
In his lecture, Anish Kapoor will tell us more about his work and the concepts underlying the exhibition.
Following the lecture, the new publication in conjunction with the exhibition will be presented:
“ANISH KAPOOR. Shooting into the Corner”, edited by Peter Noever, with contributions by Vito Acconci, Bettina M. Busse, Peter Noever, August Ruhs, Burghart Schmidt, Gabriel Ramin Schor, and Michael Stavaric, German/English, 200 pages, 183 color illustrations, MAK Vienna/Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2009.
Available online at the MAK Design Shop.
MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art
Stubenring 5
1010 Vienna
Austria
Phone (+43-1) 711 36-0
E-mail office@MAK.at
Opening hours:
Tue MAK NITE© 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Wed-Sun 10 a.m.–6 p.m.
Admission:
Free admission on Saturdays©. Powered by Verbund
