Il Mistero delle Cattedrali

Anselm Kiefer

'Il Mistero delle Cattedrali', South Galleries and 9x9x9, White Cube Bermondsey, London

9 December 2011 - 26 February 2012

© the artist

Photo: Ben Westoby

Courtesy White Cube

Anselm Kiefer

White Cube

Bermondsey

When the White Cube opened in Bermondsey last year it felt like a rock concert. At least a thousand people came to line up down the block, and after you finally got into the courtyard it was nearly a stampede to get into the building, I don't even know if everybody made it in. For a Gallery opening that is unheard off, if anyone has beaten that attendance, I would be curious to know. The space is grand comparably to other Galleries it has more of a museum feel to it. The hallway is large and disappointingly unused, we thought it was an installation in the ceiling at first since the lighting is so sharp, the second time I went, it made me get an instant headache (blaming it on the light, which the receptionist said she is getting used to and that it's lesser sharp now...). The artwork at the opening was safe to the extent that it nearly felt a bit monotonous, not what the White Cube is famous for.

The Anselm Kiefer exhibit that is going on right now though, is at another level, it has WOW! Factors written all over it. People either hate it for its dreary depressive messages, or love it for it's extreme grand and thought through masterworks.

Anselm Kiefer

'Il Mistero delle Cattedrali', South Galleries and 9x9x9, White Cube Bermondsey, London

9 December 2011 - 26 February 2012

© the artist

Photo: Ben Westoby

Courtesy White Cube

Anselm Kiefer, is a perfectionist, he can't help but digging deeper into what he already has been developing. Maybe he is now expecting too much from his viewer, can we really catch all his messages? But, why should we? Isn't it the exciting part to keep learning and discovering?

The work is immense, I am thinking it might even have been made specifically for the White Cube Bermondsey space, or it might have already be commissioned for somewhere else after, since all his work is wait listed. The large image above is based on Tempelhof Airport in Berlin that closed down in 2008, a city airport that will be greatly missed (at least by me).

"The title of the exhibition is taken from the esoteric publication by Fulcanelli (published in 1926), which claimed that the Gothic cathedrals of Europe had openly displayed the hidden code of alchemy for over 700 years. As with all Kiefer's work, allusions are never literal but reflect an ongoing interest in systems - mystical and material - which have evolved over centuries. Both title and exhibition reflect Kiefer's longtime fascination with the transformative nature of alchemy: "The ideology of alchemy is the hastening of time, as in the lead-silver-gold-cycle which needed only time in order to transform lead into gold. In the past the alchemist sped up this process with magical means. That was called magic. As an artist I don't do anything differently. I only accelerate the transformation that is already present in things. That is magic, as I understand it." 

        - White Cube

Anselm Kiefer

Merkaba

2011

Lead, steel, rubber, copper piping, plaster, resin, acrylic, salt, pewter and oil paint

49 3/16 x 122 1/16 x 27 15/16 in. (125 x 310 x 71 cm)

© the artist

Photo: Ben Westoby

Courtesy White Cube

"You have to find a golden path between controlling and not controlling, between order and chaos, if there is too much order, it is dead; if there is too much chaos, it doesn't cohere. I'm continually negotiating a path between these two extremes."

      -Anselm Kiefer to White Cube

He is succeeding beyond limits... a contemporary alchemist, best exhibit of the year, so far.

With Love

Kristin