GOLD AND ENAMEL 'WATER RING I', ANISH KAPOOR, 2008

Designed as a concave disk decorated to the interior with deep purple enamel, size P, signed A Kapoor Unique, British Hallmarks for London, 2008, fitted case Louisa Guinness Gallery for Anish Kapoor.

Stamped with British hallmarks 916 for 22 carat gold. Weighing approximately 53.4 grams. Condition as new.
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This piece of jewellery is derived from the original 'Water Ring' collection.  This jewel is unique.

Anish Kapoor was born in Bombay (Mumbai), India in 1954.  In 1972 he moved to England, where he has lived ever since.  Kapoor first exhibited at the ICA in 1981 as part of the landmark exhibition Objects and Sculpture.  In 1990 he represented Britain at the Venice Biennnale and in 1991 won the Turner prize.   This year the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston exhibited Kapoor's first US mid-career survey and The Royal Academy of Art has announced it will hold a major Kapoor retrospective in late 2009.

In 2003 the Louisa Guinness Gallery, headed by Louisa Guinness, decided to continue the idea of wearable art that artists such as Calder and Dali had started.  She approached a number of artists including Anish Kapoor and worked with them to realise some wonderful new pieces to bring the exhibition 'Past and Present – Jewellery by 20th Century artists' up to date.

Kapoor's sculptures are frequently simple, monochromatic and brightly coloured.  The Water Ring series is suggestive of his concave works, which often allude to and play with dualities such as light and dark, earth and sky, body and mind, solidity and intangibility.   In his recent works such as Sky Mirror, he has used highly reflective surfaces which create a symbiotic relationship between the object, the viewer and the viewing environment, while at the same time destabilise our assumptions about the physical world.  These sculptures suggest a window or void, something that Kapoor describes as a "non-object".  This ring conveys those same themes.  The highly polished and durable surface offers balance to the dark absorbing fragile enamel centre.