Liverpool Cathedral is marking its 100th anniversary by hosting a solo show by Anish Kapoor from August 10 to September 15. Titled Monadic Singularity, it will be the British Indian artist’s first exhibition in a UK cathedral and his first major solo show in Liverpool since his 1983 exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery.
It will feature works spanning the last 25 years, including Sectional Body Preparing for Monadic Singularity (2015), a huge sculpture never before seen in the UK. One of Kapoor’s kinetic wax sculptures will also be on display.
“To show works in Liverpool Cathedral is complex,” Kapoor said in a statement. “It is a space that is alive both with the physical and spiritual. As such it is resonant with a powerful sense of body and the disembodied. The works that I have chosen to show in the cathedral are situated similarly between body and materiality and geometric immaterial which I refer to as the non-object. It is my hope that this conjunction of object and non-object here in this immense and potent space will be cause for reflection on the nature of religious experience and the human condition.”
The Very Reverend Dr Sue Jones, Dean of Liverpool, said it is a “privilege” for the cathedral to host Kapoor. “Our Cathedral stands as a place of Encounter, and we invite everyone to experience Kapoor’s extraordinary art within our historic walls,” she said. “This exhibition promises to be a profound meeting of creativity and spirituality, and we hope it inspires all who visit.”
The exhibition is in partnership with Culture Liverpool, private, not-for-profit organisation Liverpool BID Company, Lisson Gallery, and Liverpool jewelers Boodles.
“Staged in the spiritual context of the cathedral, where significant moments in life such as birth and death are celebrated and ritualised, Kapoor’s artworks provide connection and inspire awe,” a representative from Liverpool Cathedral said.