Anish Kapoor, Britain's foremost living sculptor, works in a cluster of small buildings in a quiet south London street, which he has converted into a studio space. He is in the process, he says, of a "major rethinking" of the space, which serves rather well as a description of his vocation, as well as being a practical statement of intent on his physical working conditions.
When Kapoor talks of space, he is not just referring to what a couple of useful loft extensions might do; he talks of space as something sacred, to be celebrated, and sometimes to be feared. Like the best sculptures, his pieces ask questions of space and provide no easy answers. His work is riddled with contradictions. He calls himself an abstract artist even while he explicitly denies the possibility of abstraction. The meaning in his art pursues him, catches him out and occasionally haunts him.
