As part of its 40th anniversary season, the Public Art Fund has placed Anish Kapoor’s “Descension,” a spinning vortex of water that appears to be endlessly spiraling downward straight into the ground, enclosed by a fence, at Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.
The whirlpool that appears to have no bottom, spans 26 feet in diameter and makes it seem as though water is being sucked straight into the surface of the earth, and is meant to stimulate a portal leading to an unseen dimension. It was first displayed at India’s Kochi-Murziris Biennale, on a much small scale (and inside).
“Anish Kapoor reminds us of the contingency of appearances: our senses inevitably deceive us. With descension, he creates an active object that resonates with changes in our understanding and experience of the world,” commented Public Art Fund Director Nicholas Baume, who curated the project. “In this way, Kapoor is interested in what we don’t know rather than in what we do, understanding that the limit of perception is also the threshold of human imagination.”
PLAN YOUR TRIP to Brooklyn, and witness the descension yourself while also trying to understand the threshold of your own imagination, with Fodor’s Guide to Brooklyn.