Anselm Kiefer: Walhalla

White Cube’s spaces in Bermondsey are entirely dedicated to “Walhalla”, Anselm Kiefer‘s solo show, on display until mid February. The artist has taken over the whole space with new paintings, sculptures and a site specific installation.

The name of the exhibition comes from the site specific work, installed in the main corridor: it’s a long, dark room lined with oxidised lead where fold-up steel beds are set close together and covered with grey crumpled lead sheets.

The show starts from Walhalla and then takes visitors to the rooms where Kiefer‘s new paintings are on show. In these works he explores a variety of media, including oil, acrylic and clay, recalling his tower motifs which are set in deserted and desolated landscapes.

In his paintings the use of towers is quite recurrent. Those buildings are based on his sculptures made of concrete casts of shipping containers, like the ones on permanent display at Hangar Bicocca in Milan.

Finally, in the ‘9 x 9 x 9’ gallery a rusted metal spiral staircase disappears into the ceiling. The work, titled Sursum Corda refers to when the Valkyries reach Valhalla, the robes hanging on the stairs are left as traces of their bodies that are no longer there.