Sculpture installed outside in a public place frequently fails. Not only does it need to engage a passing audience, it must also work within an existing environment. More often than not the result is an attempt to appeal to and appease everyone and what one ends up with is less an artwork and more a large ornament, with little meaning other than a tenous commemorative connection to some aspect of the area’s history.
When public sculpture succeeds however, it’s often because it prompts the viewer to think about themselves in relation to their environment as much as the artwork and in this respect Anish Kapoor’s four mirrored objects, in situ in Kensington Gardens for the next six months, tick all the right boxes.
Constructed from polished stainless steel and with the combined title ‘Turning the World Upside Down’, Kapoor’s wavy wall ‘C-Curve’, pointy witch’s hat ‘Non Object (Spire)’ and two curved discs ‘Sky Mirrors’ distort and reflect back both the leafy landscape surrounds and their audience, the majority of the latter clicking away on cameraphones on my visit, highlighting our now ubiquitous desire to record and share an event, almost in preference to actually experiencing it.
The sky mirrors, both place in or near water, are the most dramatic. The larger one, on this overcast day, reflecting the cloudy grey sky to look like the moon fallen to earth. While the smaller, placed in the round pond and tinted a blood red, could be the angry planet Mars, the clouds reflected in it it’s swirling atmosphere.
If there is a detraction it’s the presence of 24-hour security guards in hi-vis jackets, making sure no one gets too close. Surely another requirement of outdoor sculpture is that it should be able to look after itself.