Whorled (Here After Here After Here)

This month Jitish Kallat will present Whorled (Here After Here After Here), a new courtyard commission by Somerset House and the artist’s first major public commission in the UK. A striking outdoor installation of over 30 metres in diameter, the work takes the form of two intersecting spirals that echo the signage of UK roads, connecting the courtyard of Somerset House to locations across the universe.

Kallat conceives Whorled (Here After Here After Here) as a galactic ripple, aligned to the Earth’s cardinal north-south directions and spiralling outwards from the centre of the Somerset House courtyard. The work draws upon sacred geometry and alchemical diagrams and, like much of Kallat’s work, interlaces the immediate and the cosmic, the past and present. As visitors walk through the scrolls, these signs indicate the distance from Somerset House to over 300 locations across the planet and beyond, pointing to celestial bodies, such as the Moon, Mars, and distant stars in the Milky Way.

Visitors encounter will a continuous shifting of focus as they walk through the work, as signs at one moment point to nearby locations and then to distant supernovae. Several of the places featured in the work have fallen victim to rising sea levels, while others are known to be under environmental threat of submersion within the next thirty years. With exhibition dates that encompass Earth Day 2023, the work prompts a reconsideration of our relationship with the planet and its imminent future. 

This year, Morgan Stanley Lates returns to Somerset House: a series of evening performances, music, talks and poetry in the courtyard. The series will see a live activation of Whorled (Here After Here After Here) in April 2023.

The installation will be on display at The Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court, Somerset House, from 16 February to 23 April 2023.