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| IN NEW ZEALAND: Dismemberment Site 1, 2003-09 © Artist Anish KapoorDismemberment Site I is explicitly Land Art, as underscored by its title and the term "site". Its anchoring in the landscape is both spectacular and supernatural; will his artwork "dismember" the hill by appearing as a shape oscillating between muscle and an ancestral trumpet? As is often the case with Anish Kapoor, it is also a "work of passage", giving the singular impression we can enter it to discover an unknown world. |
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| Artist Anish Kapoor |
ART
The Indian-born British artist Anish Kapoor is one of the great creative minds of our time. Born and raised in Bombay*, he now lives and works in London. However, for this internationally renowned sculptor, there is no question about him being boxed into a static identity. His career overflows with site specific pieces, all over the globe, in a continual dialogue among visual art traditions. He is an explorer who can make gigantic spaces feel small and can create immensity from a confined space, somehow sidestepping the laws of the material world. Anish Kapoor operates in a space he calls “the in-betweeness”, always staying open to new directions, trying to avoid being pigeon holed in any way.
(*Bombay officially changed its name to Mumbai in November of 1995)
(*Bombay officially changed its name to Mumbai in November of 1995)
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IN CHICAGO: Cloud Gate, 2004-2006 © Artist Anish Kapoor Both bridge and cloud, Cloud Gate appears in the public space as an intriguing, spectacular UFO of a sculpture. Playing on the motif of reflections, Kapoor creates a monumental work that is more that just a reflection of its surroundings. The purity of the sensual, organic form and the shiny surface draws the viewer in, causing the eye to go from one perspective of the world to another. The work is a bridge between several dimensions and it has become a favorite with the locals and a Chicago attraction for tourists. |
A universal artist in this time of globalization, Anish Kapoor loathes the thought of being narrowly defined. This is not out of non-conformity, but because it would limit his genius. His art makes us question the very dimensions of matter and Kapoor tirelessly explores unknown places and seeks new contexts. Thus he created Sky Mirror (2001), a gigantic concave mirror reflecting the sky and the animation of NYC installed for a time at New York's Rockefeller Center; and his famous Cloud Gate (in Chicago's Millennium Park, 2004-2006), is an immense polished stainless steel public sculpture absorbing the tall buildings along Michigan Avenue into its horizontality and softening the vertical city. Kapoor has build a dense, living body of work which opens a spectator’s emotions. The artist says, "Nothing in the man is attached to his immediate surroundings or is fixed, because it is in the imagination that humanity truly resides."
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Anish Kapoor. Yellow, 1999 © Artist Anish Kapoor A sculptural monochromatic work mounted into the wall, defying the rules of perception, Yellow is first and foremost a jubilant artwork. The pure solar color draws the eye, which basks in it. What seems flat, also seems mysteriously rounded , but the surface proves to be concave: the eye dizzies and loses itself in this bottomless bath of pure yellow color. This artwork that is both thought-provoking and sensational. |
Now Showing
by Anish Kapoor
at MONUMENTA, Paris
Up through June 23, 2011
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Anish Kapoor – Leviathan – Interior view of the artwork © MONUMENTA 2011 & Artist Anish Kapoor - Photo: Didier Plowy, all rights reserved by Monumenta 2011 & The French Ministry for Culture and Communication. |
MONUMENTA is an ambitious artistic encounter unmatched anywhere in the world, organized by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. Each year MONUMENTA invites an internationally renowned contemporary artist to fill the 13,500 square meters in the Grand Palais Nave with an artwork specially created for the space.
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The Nave of the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées. Built for the 1900 World Fair, the Grand Palais was inspired by London's Crystal Palace and is now a historic Paris monument with the largest glass roof in all of Europe. © Photo EMOC / Patrick Tourneboeuf / Farida Bréchemier. |
MONUMENTA's challenge is monumental, to find one of the great artists of our time to create the next remarkable piece of art, both precious and accessible. The venue is the exceptionally beautiful Nave of the Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées in Paris. MONUMENTA's efforts for the first three years of this project have been successful and have proven that contemporary art can be appreciated both by the critics and the public at large.
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| From video by MONUMENTA of 2011 Opening. |
This year MONUMENTA commissioned Anish Kapoor to take up the challenge. The Bombay-born / British sculptor fascinates and enchants viewers with his artworks. The simple lines of his recent works, often achieved by state-of-the-art technology, produce a stunning visual impact and his pieces are enjoyed by both the eye, from a distance, and by interacting with them up close.
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With Leviathan, the artist uses a deep purple color for the exterior making the piece look like a very oddly shaped eggplant and when viewed from inside, the back-lit shell turns to a deep red color. Working with the light from the glass ceiling, plus filling the height and width of the huge Nave with this sculpture, Kapoor's Leviathan lives up to its title. MONUMENTA 2011 is Anish Kapoor’s return to the "City of Lights" as the "Conquering Hero of the Art World", thirty years after his first exhibition in Paris. (Below are concept drawings showing the shape of the sculpture and how people will interact with it on the exterior and the interior.)
Source: All information and photos in this article came from the press access of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication & MONUMENTA's websites and the formal press release from: monumenta.com.
Dancing with the
Pointy Toed Boots!
MATEHUALA, Mexico –
Several news websites are reporting a new fashion fad happening in Mexico: "Pointy Toed Boots"! The idea for these awkward looking dancing shoes started when a customer made an odd request to shoemaker, Darlo Calderon, in Matehuala, Mexico. The request was to create a pair of boots with very long pointed toes. Most cowboys in Mexico, have for many years, worn boots with a pointed toe, but nothing very extreme.
These "extreme pointy toed boots" created by Darlo were worn by his customer, to the Mesquite Rodeo Nightclub, where he danced with a handkerchief covering his face, like a bandit.
Since that night, everyone in town has wanted a pair of Darlo's pointy toed boots. It is said that the ladies will not dance with any man not wearing a pair of pointy boots.
This boot fashion has been around for about a year and the phenomenon is spreading across Mexico and even to a few US cities.
FOOD
In a shaker filled with ice, combine all ingredients and shake vigorously.
Serve some Southwestern Margaritas!
Inspired by the cool, blue rivers of the American Southwest this bright blue margarita is as refreshing, as it is lovely.
Ingredients:
• 7.5 oz. Tequila
• 4.5 oz. Blue Curacao
• 18 oz. Margarita Mix
• 6 oz. Orange Juice
• Lime twist for garnish
Directions:
In a shaker filled with ice, combine all ingredients and shake vigorously.
Serve over ice, with or without salt, garnish with a lime twist.
Then enjoy your Southwestern Margarita while you sit and watch the sunset in the West.
Makes 7 Servings
Source:
Sauza ® Gold Tequila &
Dekuyper ® Blue Curacao
Until Later,
Jack
ARTSnFOOD, All rights reserved. Concept & Original Text © Copyright 2011 Jack A. Atkinson under all International intellectual property and copyright laws. Images © individual artists, fabricators, respective owners or assignees.
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