tall tree and the eye....

 

Anish Kapoor's sculpture, 'Tall Tree and the Eye', is a steel structure made up of 76 shiny spheres arranged to tower 15meters high alongside the surrounding buildings. It was made in early 2009 and then exhibited in the courtyard of The Royal Academy from September to December of the same year. The steel structure which combines randomness with a feeling of weightlessness, is inspired by the words of the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke. "It is a conjunction of images I have always loved in his Sonnets to Orpheus and this work is, in a way, a kind of eye which is reflecting images endlessly," said Kapoor. It is a tree-like arrangement of  reflective, light bubbles that seem to reach up to the sky and convey the nature of how things appear. It shows us how through manipulating light and shade, volume and space, the time and place can be suspended and altered. I love how it is such a modern looking sculpture, yet it blends in with the historic buildings surrounding it which almost seems contradicting in a way..They are different, but related. I don't know much about what was going on at the time it was made, but Anish Kapoor was given full exhibition space at The Royal Academy which is considered one of the most prestigious art gallery's in London. Several people think his works displayed there were a mockery to the history of the art gallery, but many more are amazed by his ability to force the new and old together.. In some ways the gallery needed a fresh, modern display of defiance that would bring it to the present. I reckon that was the idea or context surrounding this particular exhibition of Anish Kapoor's and he achieved exactly that with this buzzy sculpture.