Afdaling in het ongewisse/Descent into Limbo

Anish Kapoor creates situations that cause us to question the trust we place in our own perceptions. Automatic patterns of looking fall away, while new experiences and ways of seeing emerge in the resulting space. The concept of ‘the void’ is a key to understanding Kapoor’s worldview and takes on many forms within his oeuvre. Kapoor formulates this aptly: ‘The void has many presences.’

In the case of the monumental Untitled (1994–1995) [link], emptiness is literally at the heart of the sculpture. In the side of a large block of raw limestone, a concave oval has been polished to a smooth shiny finish. The way the light bounces and reflects across it makes the space seem to invert itself: inside becomes outside and light becomes dark.

Inside one of De Pont’s former wool-storage rooms, Descent into Limbo pulls the viewer to the boundaries of perception, confronting them with what their eyes can see but not make sense of. The work debuted at Documenta IX in Kassel in 1992. That year’s edition of the international exhibition, held once every five years, was helmed by Belgian curator Jan Hoet. De Pont acquired the work shortly thereafter. Descent into Limbo consists of a black circle nearly sixty centimetres in diameter, placed in the middle of the floor. At first glance, it appears to be a flat plane, but on closer inspection, it is revealed to be a hollow. Its interior is coated in a dark blue pigment that absorbs all light, destroying any sense of perspective.

This confusion gives rise to hesitation: it seems like one wrong move could mean a plummet into nothingness. The doubt the work elicits is no shortcoming on the viewer’s part but rather the essence of the experience.