Anish Kapoor: Flashback

After LS Lowry at the Lakeside gallery,  another of the art world's heavyweights, Anish Kapoor, is paying Nottingham a visit in Flashback, a new exhibition at Nottingham Castle. Kapoor is best know for his large scale installations, in particular the enormous Marsyas in the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall in 2002.

The works personally selected to be placed in the Castle are smaller, more intimate pieces, which have prevented any major demolition work being necessary. As is customary, there is a small introductory piece by Anna Collette Hunt at the foot of the steps leading up to the Castle's long gallery - a selection of small ceramic insects attached to the wall entitled 'Stirring the Swarm', which carries a natural, kinetic joy with it as it follows you upstairs. In a small room before the main show, a video screen shows a series of interviews and mini-documentaries of Kapoor at work, speaking about the “absolute experience” attempted in his art and directing an articulated lorry through the streets of New Zealand. Indeed the difficulty of creating and presenting his art is a theme that recurs in the pieces themselves.

A small introductory blurb on the wall talks about Kapoor's sculpture in terms of “belief” and “passion” rather than more concrete interests. A quote speaking of the work as “outside material concern” seems slightly at odds with the corporeal nature of sculpture itself. The link is also drawn with Kapoor's Sky Mirror (2001), which stands outside the Playhouse and wasthe artist's first permanent outdoor installation, a proud fact and surely a contributor towards his return to the Nottingham.

Negative Box Shadow, 2005 Courtesy of the artist

Flashback is a wonder to look at from the entrance of the gallery, a strange amusement park detached from the set of Blade Runner and installed by a hungover Tim Burton. There is a range of both time and medium in the chosen works that provides a general idea of Anish Kapoor's interests to anyone unfamiliar with his work. White Sand, Red Millet, Many Flowers (1982) is a placement of unnatural structures upon the floor, dusted with primary colour paint pigment that naturally diffuses and gives it the feeling that it could blow away at any second. Moon Shadow (2005) is exactly that, a flesh coloured crescent of wax intersected by a flat board to create a clean soft shadow that falls onto the white wall.

As testimony to the logistical difficulties involved in installing and maintaining these pieces, I found myself speaking with Russell Jenkins, Design Technician at the Castle, who I found re-touching the wax on Red in the Centre (1982) which after four days untouched during the holidays had started to deteriorate as gravity suffered it's own artistic differences. Russell detailed the work  entailed in staging Flashback, including the building of a false wall to accompany the mind-bending effects of When I Am Pregnant (1992) and the installation of the steel cylinder that holds Turning Water Into Mirror Blood Into Sky (2003) and weighs around a ton, requiring the reinforcement of the castle's listed Victorian floor. The former piece is an industrial white bump that swells out towards the viewer, the latter a hypnotic, rotating machine of swirling blood red water that is as bad for the eyes as it is pleasing to the imagination. Two related pieces stand opposite each other, in a Mexican stand-off of the soul, the dark blue Void (1994) and gut-red Untitled (2011), producing a combative effect. The dark blue portrays a cold peace and the red an inviting energy juxtaposed to play with depth perception. A member of the gallery staff invites me to stick my arm into the middle of it, which is a first.

This is an understandably small collection, but one that takes in a wide range of Anish Kapoor's themes and artistic concerns throughout his career and presents them well. The team at the Castle are enthusiastic and interested in it as well, which gives a living feel to the playful nature of the work. As the recognisable and the surreal flow together, the hum of an electric motor becomes the sound track of an exhibition that deserves the energy it took to create.

 Anish Kapoor: Flashback runs at Nottingham Castle and Art Gallery until 03/03/2011

Main image - Red in the Centre, 1982, National Museums Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, Purchased 1982

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