Swirling, twisting, dancing, rising and falling, trying to escape but held captive by some unseen force, creating continually-changing lines against the whiteness of the walls. 

Sitting quietly, the animal from another world is watching, just waiting for when, like dozens of spring coils, it can leap into the air and capture the twisting dancing shape and bring it to earth, while through the window, the white face of another planet can be seen, perhaps a moon without water with its craters and mountains illuminated at this moment in time.

Other shapes are turning slowly in the air, perfectly balanced in black, red and yellow. These are Alexander Calder’s mobiles on display at PACE London, in parallel with a major exhibition of his work at Tate Modern, here displayed with works by six artists who have been prize-winners of The Calder Prize over the last decade.  The twisting swirling tape and the illuminated planet of aluminium and resin are by Zilvinas Kempinas, while the waiting watching animal is Tara Donovan’s sculpture composed of dozens and dozens of coiled metal Slinkys.

Calder introduced unusual materials, performance and kinetic movement into his sculptures, themes which continue with the six prize-winners.  Part of the gallery has apparently been trapped under a huge spider’s web by Tomas Saraceno, while on the wall is a work which is actually made from spider silk.  Haroon Mirza’s two interconnecting squares of LED tape and wire in the ground floor galleries are an introduction to her much larger installation “Light Work iii” on the first floor .   Tara Donovan creates a cloud floating in the gallery from twist ties while nearby Rachel Harrison’s “Silent Account” is a more solid cloud-like shape sitting on a set of steps as if waiting to board an aircraft.  The sound of Darren Bader’s “IOHEfU” fills the gallery and perhaps has a resonance with Mirza’s installation on the first floor but it is a shame not to have included seen some of his other more sculptural works

Alexander Calder’s magical mobiles which include “The Tree” (1960) and “Boomerangs” (1941) and the maquette for “Trois Pics” (the large sculpture created for the Grenoble Olympics in 1968) confirm what a master he was of this form of kinetic art, along with early bronze sculptures from 1944, “Still Life”, “Snag” and “Fawn” which are almost surrealist in form.

Alexander Calder died forty years ago in 1976, but his inspiration continues into the future through the Calder Prize, a biennial prize of $50,000 inaugurated by the Calder Foundation in 2005 to recognise emerging artists whose work can be considered to be a development of Calder’s innovative sculpture and this exhibition provides a good contrast between Calder’s works and recipients of the prize.