Anish Kapoor opens at Liverpool Cathedral
Anish Kapoor's Monadic Singularity at Liverpool Cathedral | Open air theatre | Latest NW arts news
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I’ve spent the past 10 minutes trawling the internet for a quote by Liverpool Cathedral architect Giles Gilbert Scott about his largest creation, which has stayed with me since reading it years ago while writing an essay about the changes in the building’s design for my Art history MA. Trawled and failed, I should say, so you’ll have to make do with a paraphrase (although if anyone does know the quote please put me out of my misery by sharing it in the comments).
Scott implored people not to focus their gaze on the grand sandstone arches of his design, but to consider the space they hold. This involves mental gymnastics of the sort needed to comprehend the Gall-Peters version of the world map (familiar to West Wing fans) or those pictures that look like an old crone to some viewers and a young woman to the rest. It’s worth giving it a go though - this upside-down way of thinking gives a whole new perspective to a place absolutely defined by its building materials, gothic design and scale.
I was pondering this quote during the press preview of Anish Kapoor’s exhibition at Liverpool Cathedral last night. Placing his works around the building makes you look differently both at the art and its surroundings. Does that add to the experience or take something away? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Is it fair to call Anish Kapoor’s Liverpool Cathedral exhibition a solo show?
The arrival of Anish Kapoor’s first exhibition in a UK cathedral has been shrouded in mystery. A banner on the railings outside the Oratory, featuring the artist’s name and the words “Monadic Singularity” gave little away. Except, wasn’t “Monadic Singularity” part of the title of his giant red box piece that, Tardis-like, appears to be a completely different scale once you step inside?
More clues started to emerge. Yes, that particular art work would be among those shown in the Cathedral, and there would be several more joining it, exhibited in locations throughout the building.
So far, so much sense. But coming into contact with those works, in that place, is far from the straightforward experience all that suggests. Firstly, there’s the fact that, taken separately, both are entirely striking in their own right. Exhibited in the grounds of Paris’ Château de Versailles in 2015, Kapoor’s Sectional Body preparing for Monadic Singularity was overpowering and disquieting, like a lone tree in a field during a thunderstorm. Inside The Well at Liverpool Cathedral, it is sapped of its power of scale, shrunk beneath the towering stained glass windows and vast, gothic arches.
But then that only makes the shift in perspective when you step inside the cube more extreme. Surrounded by the structure’s red PVC skin is like being swallowed into the belly of a mighty sea beast, the softness of its intestine-like curved surfaces contrasting with the sharp edges of the cube outside. The space feels intimate and soaring all at once - you have to duck low under a red and black striped intestine near the entrance for a clear view of the ceiling well above your head. Your sense of scale is distorted - just eight people inside and it already feels crowded, yet it gives an idea of infinity.
Kapoor’s interest in dualities - inside and outside, geometry and fluidity - is also evident in his stainless steel form Spire. It is dwarfed by the Cathedral’s elaborately-carved High Altar, making its 240cm length, width and height seem much smaller. Yet the work’s point lifts your gaze up, up - above the work itself, above even the altar to the vault soaring above.
Exhibited in a white box, Spire would be striking enough - resembling a drop of water frozen in the action of landing on the ground, a solid form that appears fluid. But here it takes on a new appearance, reflecting the arched shapes of the ceiling, the patterns of the stained glass windows and the altar. As the light shifts and changes throughout the day, so will the art work.
While Spire changes only in our experience of it, remaining fixed in form, Kapoor’s piece Untitled is constantly physically altering. The giant bell shape of viscous red wax is being shaped by a mechanised steel blade that moves almost imperceptibly around a track, continuously moulding the work. Fittingly, it is displayed directly under the Cathedral’s own bells.
Less successful in this location are Kapoor’s two works on canvas - Red Haze, a dense flesh-like painting, and Covered, an ominous swirl of reds and blacks - that get lost in the more cramped spaces at the sides of the building. And placing Imminence, a large work of cream-coloured onyx shaped like a protruding pregnant stomach, in the Lady Chapel is perhaps a little too obvious a choice.
All in all though, this partnership between Kapoor’s works and Giles Gilbert Scott’s design adds something new to the experience of both - and plays well with the artist’s fascination with the boundary between architecture and sculpture. In fact, the show’s location has such a transformative power on the art that it seems almost incorrect to call this a “solo exhibition”.
Anish Kapoor, Monadic Singularity, opens at Liverpool Cathedral today and runs until September 15.
Outdoor theatre shows to enjoy this summer
Open air theatre is as quintessentially British summertime as melty 99s and that strappy plastic bit on your flipflops breaking. By this point in August, the season is in full throng but there’s still plenty time to get your fix.
Reynard the Fox: Just So Festival favourite The Fabularium is bringing its 45-minute show about the woodland’s most infamous scoundrel, to the Mansion House in Calderstones Park, Liverpool, on Tuesday, August 20. Also still to come: Hamlet and The Hound of the Baskervilles.
The Gangs of New York: Journey to 19th century New York City to experience the riveting story of John Morrissey, an ambitious Irish immigrant who navigates the perilous climb of the American dream. Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester, August 11-31. Also: The Importance of Being Ernest and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
As You Like It: Folksy Theatre presents this Shakespearean comedy about life, love, betrayal and faith in the Walled Garden at Hare Hill, Macclesfield, on Sunday, August 18.
In case you missed it
Latest arts news
🪇 La Feria Festival, a programme of music, dance, theatre and street-arts from across the Latin Continent, returns to Liverpool from September 10-15.
👜 Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho - a big gay odyssey about LGBT rights, the 80s and disco, created by Olivier Award winner Jon Brittain and Matt Tedford - is touring to The Lowry, Salford, from September 10-14.
🎨 Josie Jenkins and Daniel Halsall, who have adjacent studio spaces at Arena Studios in Liverpool, will be exhibiting together at The Bridewell Gallery from August 30 to September 3, open daily 12-5pm. Jenkins will mainly show large-scale paintings of interior and landscape settings, with glimmers of wonder and nostalgia running throughout, while Halsall will exhibit a series of works exploring figuration, along with playful artistic jams on canvas and paper.
🎞️ The Modernist is showing a duo of films featuring Salford - The White Bus and Charlie Bubbles - at a screening on Thursday, August 22 at the University of Salford. Tickets are free but must be booked ahead.
📚 The University of Liverpool’s Liverpool Literary Festival returns in October with guests including Adele Parks, talking about her new book First Wife’s Shadow; Caroline Crampton, on A Body Made of Glass: A History of Hypochondria; and Booker Prize winner Alan Hollinghurst.
Last chance to see . . .
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Have a great week,
Laura