{"id":432249,"date":"2025-09-17T22:57:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T22:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/432249\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T22:57:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T22:57:19","slug":"descend-into-the-underworld-via-anish-kapoors-sculptural-subway-station-entrances-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/432249\/","title":{"rendered":"Descend into the Underworld via Anish Kapoor’s Sculptural Subway Station Entrances \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

West of Naples, along the Tyrrhenian coast, sits the storied Lake Avernus. Situated in a volcanic crater, its Latin name is synonymous with hell or the underworld, and to the ancient Romans, it was considered the portal to Hades. Dante Alighieri echoed the belief in his seminal Inferno. More recently, Anish Kapoor<\/a> set out to explore the notion in a striking new entrance to the Monte Sant\u2019Angelo subway station in central Naples. \u201cIn the city of Mount Vesuvius and Dante\u2019s mythical entrance to the Inferno, I found it important to try and deal with\u00a0what it really means to go underground,\u201d the artist says.<\/p>\n

Kapoor is renowned for large-scale sculptures<\/a> and installations that tap into visceral psychological experiences, from a perpetually swirling whirlpool of black water in \u201cDescension\u201d to a meat-like slab of wax being wedged through a doorway in \u201cSvayambhu,\u201d which references a Sanskrit word meaning \u201cself-born.\u201d And, of course, there\u2019s the iconically mirrored \u201cCloud Gate,\u201d known fondly as \u201cThe Bean,\u201d in downtown Chicago.<\/p>\n

\"theUniversity entrance<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Monte Sant\u2019Angelo station, three integral themes of Kapoor\u2019s practice have coalesced in more potent form than ever: the mythological object, the body, and the void,\u201d a statement says. The artist\u2019s design for two separate entrances, initiated more than two decades ago, tap into his interest in dualistic relationships like internal and external experiences or lightness and darkness.<\/p>\n

Kapoor\u2019s two entrances exist in dialogue with one another, as one is made from weathered steel with a rusty patina that suggests an amorphous bodily form. The other is conceived as something of the inverse, where a tubular steel form is presented more smoothly and \u201ccleanly\u201d while likewise hovering over travelers like a mysterious system or gigantic conduit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe station is a remarkable symbiosis of sculpture and architecture, a dynamic that has always been a central force in Kapoor\u2019s work,\u201d a statement says. \u201cKapoor\u2019s work both holds and creates the new space in which it is experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Explore dozens of works on Kapoor\u2019s website<\/a>, and discover even more artistic subway stations<\/a> around the world.<\/p>\n

\"escalatorsLooking up from within the Traiano entrance<\/p>\n

\"aA side view of the university entrance<\/p>\n

\"theLooking down into the university entrance<\/p>\n

\"escalatorsTraiano entrance<\/p>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you?<\/strong> Become a Colossal Member<\/a> now, and support independent arts publishing.<\/p>\n