Anish Kapoor (b. 1954)

Red - an iconic colour for Kapoor - the invigorating colour of life and death - bestows the scene with a vibrant, vital but also strongly visceral atmosphere - a quality that in recent years has grown increasingly pronounced in Kapoor's work. In transforming the world reflected in its red aperture, Blood Solid also emphasises the illusive nature of all appearances and revealing at the same time the world as a stage or pantomime. In this respect, existing on the in the frisson between two realities and in its power of transformation or revelation, the sculpture, the object itself appears to transcend the physical realm embodying an aura of magic or mysticism - what Kapoor has called an 'oneiric' quality that he highly prizes.