Yesterday I went to the Guggenheim to see the Kandinsky exhibit. As I was leaving I stopped to visit Anish Kapoor's massive site-specific installation, Memory. The piece left a lasting impression that overshadowed the show I had gone to see.

Wedged into a corner of the museum, the piece is visible only piecemeal. There are three entry points into the work, and it proves to be at once alien and deeply personal. When peering into the piece it envelops you, encouraging you to enter into its warm, dark interior. A guard is stationed to keep one from doing just that accidentally. Stepping away from the opening, the piece takes on a two-dimensional aspect, appearing as a painting of deep richness hanging upon the wall.

Walking around the galleries to explore the exterior of the work, the inability to see it all at once gives the impression of an even greater size as the mind works to encompass the piece so as to understand its scale. The mind must work even harder to understand both the finite steel exterior of the work and the seemingly limitless volume of its interior.

The Guggenheim has a website with more information on the construction and installation fo the work, as well as an introductory video in which both Kapoor and Sandhini Poddar, Assistant Curator of Asian Art, talk about the work. More of Kapoor's work can be found on his website.