Book Description

Since the early 1980s, Anish Kapoor's investigations into objecthood, materiality and gravity have explored the concept of the void, or what he describes as "objects becoming space". His sculptures, installations and public art have been characterized by intensely tactile or reflective materials, including coloured pigments, wax, fibreglass, polished stainless steel and PVC, that resist any narrative reading. Deutsche Guggenheim's ambitious commission opens to the public in October 2008 and travels to New York in 2009. It is conceived as an intervention in the galleries that prevents any one complete viewing or experience of the work. Fabricated of Cor-Ten steel, with industrial hinges and flanges exposed, the work tests the boundaries between sculpture and painting, as one opening brings viewers into a cavernous, expansive paint field. This accompanying catalogue offers four points of entry into the work: through philosophy, postcolonial and architectural theory, and structural analysis, and is accompanied by preparatory sketches and architectural renderings.