When you enter the middle gallery of the Speed Art Museum’s temporary exhibition, “Rounding the Circle: The Mary and Al Shands Collection,” a white “rock” the size of the Liberty Bell catches your attention — but the giant, yellow disc hanging behind it captivates you.
The stainless steel art piece by Anish Kapoor is a little disorienting, to say the least. Standing from afar you can recognize the familiar curves of a shallow bowl, but up close, it appears flat. It draws you in like a moth to a very yellow flame and changes your perception of how far away you actually are from it.
It was collector Al Shands’ favorite, too. The object label adjacent to it reads, “It has become maybe my favorite piece in the collection because it involves interaction with the viewer. We all have givens about what we think things are. One of the functions of an artist is to show you that what you thought was reality is not necessarily that.”
