Anish Kapoor speaks out on Brexit

One of the UK’s most successful artists has weighed in on the topic that’s dominated pretty much every conversation in pubs up and down the land for the best part of three years now: Brexit.

Anish Kapoor, sculptor extraordinaire, has been interviewed today by British newspaper, The i. During the course of a conversation that’s taken place ahead of two new major shows opening over the forthcoming weeks and months, the man responsible for inadvertently erecting the world’s longest tunnel slide is probed about Brexit.

Given that whatever decision Theresa May and the ragtag bunch of leavers, remainers, and those still not sure make over the next week or so will have a huge impact on all of us – including incredibly famous sculptors with a predilection for bright red assemblages of metal – it shouldn’t come as a surprise that journalist Hettie Judah decided to check in with Kapoor about the topic.

What might be surprising is what Kapoor likens the ongoings in Westminster to. Noting that his immediate response is to indulge in some “cathartic swearing” when the B-word is mentioned, Judah quotes Kapoor as saying: “It’s very interesting, isn’t it, that psychically we’ve allowed ourselves as a nation to enter a space of unknowing, and that we let it linger and linger. And it’s not just our leaders, it’s all of us. Nations don’t do that, so why are we doing it? Is it some un-nameable spirit in us? I’ve been in psychoanalysis for more than 30 years, and I can’t help but see it in terms of a depressive self. It’s like what teenagers do when they self-harm.”

If you fancy a break from all the Brexit-this, Brexit-that which currently comprises nearly the entirety of British discourse on a daily basis – and we really don’t blame you if you do – then why not watch Anish guide Channel 4 round his studio instead?