Anish Kapoor's Descension to Debut in New York at Brooklyn Bridge Park

Anish Kapoor's installation Descension will be presented for the first time in the United States at Brooklyn Bridge Park's Pier One along the East River, from May 3 to September 10, 2017. The work, originally created in 2015, was previously shown in a smaller scale at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India, at Galleria Continua in San Gimignano, and at the Palace of Versailles. The installation features an eight-meter-diameter funnel-like spiral that creates the illusion of a black, opaque whirlpool, evoking an infinite descent into the ocean or a black hole. The project is organized in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Public Art Fund, a nonprofit that coordinates major public art projects in New York in collaboration with museums such as the Whitney and MoMA, foundations, and private entities. The article contrasts this work with Kapoor's recent, more visceral and grotesque phase seen at MACRO in Rome, praising Descension as a return to his earlier style of optical seduction and monumental purity.