“I hope that this uncanny blue giant will enchant kids in the way I was enchanted by fairy tales and later on by art,” says the 2019 Turner Prize-winning artist Tai Shani. She is speaking of her monumental animatronic sculpture, The Spell, which was unveiled in the courtyard at Somerset House last week to mark the commissioning studio’s 25th anniversary.
And enchant it does. On the opening evening, children are climbing up the stepped plinth and peering into the glass, coffin-like box. “I can see her breathing,” one says. “They look cold. Are they going to wake up?” another asks.
