Inside the big, wide Whorled (Here After Here After Here) by Jitish Kallat for Somerset House

Looking for something fun to do this weekend? Well, Somerset House has you sorted. Why not take a wander down Whorled (Here After Here After Here)? An all new contemporary courtyard installation by multidisciplinary creative, Jitish Kallat, who is back in the UK to present his first major commissioned piece.

And it is, quite literally, totally inescapable: as hard as you might, you can’t resist walking through the loops and bends of the figurative installation which dominates the entirety of the museums’ outdoor space.

Leaning towards higher astrological powers, Kallat is trying to make sense of the world in which we live– which is doing something completely radical in itself.

“The piece exponentially distances space and time as it starts from the stars on the Galaxy and comes along to a place where distance becomes temporal rather than units of time,” the Mumbai based artist tells ES Magazine. “I want it to reference the past and space but also represent and act as a reflection of urgencies and futures.”

Inspired by commonplace road signs, thick blue placards are repeated and interconnected together– a whole 336 metres long sitting rather incongruously amongst the museums’ neoclassical square. Walking through the multi-ton modernist masterpiece, you are oriented according to the energetic field of the earth. Though it may sound rather confusingly celestial, the fixture is not a maze but one wrap-around circle that never crosses, only continues.

“It can get really busy. It was quite nice to see people interacting inside. The movement gets animated because it is a very decided pathway, which for me makes the work even more beautiful”, Kallat says. “It is really about taking a civic space where people wander and encouraging them to walk in circles.”

The 48-year old artist wants to raise awareness of not only our presence within the world but beyond. Crafted from biodegradable PVC mesh, the six interlacing spirals are marked with locations around the world, forming one circular route.

Mapping space and time, everywhere from the London Zoo to more far flung destinations which includes mars, the moon and celestial clusters. Bangkok, Boboshevo, Venice follow next. Besides being some of the most desirable of destinations, the three locales are also confronted by a challenge they would rather not share, having fallen victim to rising sea levels. Preoccupied by countries and cities that are slowly being submerged under water, the artist has accompanied warning and hazard symbols which beckon us to acknowledge our actions and their implications on the environment in which we inhabit.

The Installation is free to view at The Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court, Somerset House, now until 23 April 2023