obviously objectivity belongs to a chapter in the back of the book of mythical beasts, which is why i can confidently parade my bias for anish kapoor’s work.
i like exploring works of artists without reading up about it beforehand, to get a better impression of my own sentiment rather than the prescription; even if you are familiar with an artist’s oeuvre, they can still produce the unexpected, which to me is the only reason to get out of bed each day.
it’s the same anticipation that makes me go to performances, turn the page of a book, watch my children grow up. predictability will always be there, but so will the alternative, the mysterious. i understand why the insecure are so scared of it, the ‘what if?’ security craving wet blankets around which modern economies are moulded.
mystery is an underrated motivator, it is what moves us off our asses and propels us on the search for something, it is more than curiosity, it is a miracle.
i agree with jean cocteau’s argument that once a miracle happens, it is no longer a miracle, which is why i believe the search for miracles is perpetual.
i turned a corner in the museum beelden aan zee, where i’d gone for a picasso exhibit, only to find the mountain.
it was not colossal, it was like a scale model, it was pretty. i walked around it and remember thinking they should have placed it in a more contemplative setting, without the disturbing voices from the adjacent exhibit and without the video playing a ‘background to’.
on closer view it did feel like something i wanted to climb upon, and still gave a strange feeling of massiveness. i was surprised to notice it was metal, layers of metal with something digital about it. the patination where it reached the floor made me consider it again as the mysterious object it sought to represent. granted i’d just watched the 100 series on netflix featuring ‘mount weather’ as a post apocalyptic refuge trapped in time, so i might have been entertaining a fantasy.
the mystery revealed itself when i stepped up on a stairway at the back of the work (it said max three people and i was glad to notice an obliging group of three people waiting their turn). discovering the marvel of the voided space inside was the reveal, classic kapoor. entertaining the expected unexpectedly.
‘that’s what I’m interested in: the void, the moment when it isn’t a hole, it is a space full of what isn’t there’
-anish kapoor
