Public art often gets mixed reviews. Some people love it, some people complain about it, some people say they just don’t get it, but you can’t deny that it gets people talking. Take all those new Banksys in London, for instance.
It’s always good to stir conversations about culture, which is exactly what Anish Kapoor wants to do with his brand new installation at Liverpool Cathedral, commissioned to celebrate the building’s 100th birthday. The British-Indian sculptor has created an exhibition called ‘Monadic Singularity’, which he says will be ‘cause for reflection on the nature of religious experience and the human condition.’ Lofty ambitions.
And these huge goals are matched by the size of his creations, one of which is a large-scale wax sculpture designed to blend in with its spiritual surroundings. There will also be smaller works by Kapoor throughout the cathedral, making it his first exhibition in Liverpool since the 1980s.
On the building itself, Kapoor said: ‘It is a space that is alive both with the physical and spiritual… The works that I have chosen to show in the cathedral are situated similarly between body and materiality and geometric immaterial which I refer to as the non-object.’ We don’t really know what he means anymore than you do, but it sounds cool nonetheless.
If you’re struggling to picture anything based on that description, here’s what it looks like put into practice.
The exhibit is open now until September 15, and is free to enter, but you can buy tickets to special late night viewings this weekend here.
Looking for more great art?
If you’re in the mood for some more out-there art but aren’t that interested in Banksy’s current daily stencils, we’ve got you covered. Why not head to one of these art destinations, or one of our favourite sculpture parks in the country?
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