As part of an ongoing bid to get his hands on Vantablack, the super dark, light-absorbing material to which Anish Kapoor controversially has the exclusive license, artist Stuart Semple has legally changed his name to… Anish Kapoor.

“It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Semple told me. “I like the idea of being able to try a name on and see how it feels, and test what the ownership of a name means, I suppose.”

As a piece of performance art, the name change serves as a way to explore ideas of ownership and authorship.

It is also the latest salvo in Semple’s color wars, as he seeks to fight what he calls “color hoarding,” in which an individual or company asserts the exclusive right to the use of a particular color or shade. (He’s also called out Mattel Barbie pink, Tiffany blue, and Cadbury purple, among others.)

A legal form changing Stuart Semple’s name to Anish Kapoor. Photo courtesy of Stuart Semple.

Semple shared a Reel on Instagram showing him walking into Bournemouth Crown and County Courts and signing the paperwork to become Kapoor.

“In the U.K., it’s a super easy thing to do. It was just a few minutes,” Semple said.

He has yet to follow up by changing his name on his bank account, driver’s license, passport, and other legal documents, which would admittedly be more complicated. But he is confirming the name change publicly in writing in one way: by releasing a limited-edition print pertaining to the performance piece, reading “I’m not a niche man. I’m Anish, man,” on November 2. Each one is signed “A. Kapoor.”

Stuart Semple, Not a Niche Man (2024). Photo courtesy of the artist.

“I’m not 100 percent sure what I’m even going to do as Kapoor yet,” he added, noting that other artists, like Monster Chetwynd, regularly rechristen themselves. “I’m quite intrigued to try on some different names.
I’m wondering who else I could be for a period of time. I just find it really fascinating.”

Set to the sounds of Eminem’s 2000 hit “The Real Slim Shady” (which also deals with identity via the alter-ego of the rapper, born Marshall Mathers), the video documenting the name change ends with Semple saying, “Let’s see if the makers of Vantablack will now let me have some.”

 

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So far, he admitted, Semple hasn’t shot his shot: “It would be a really fascinating conversation to have with them. But I think it’s probably not going to get very far because they’re going to realize it’s me within about 30 seconds.”

The original Kapoor controversially secured the exclusive rights to Vantablack in 2016. The U.K. firm Surrey NanoSystems developed the product in 2014 by growing long microscopic carbon nanotubes in a field so dense that almost all light was trapped inside it.

Adapting this high-tech material for use in art was a years-long challenge, which Surrey NanoSystems undertook in partnership with Kapoor. That is why he is the only artist allowed to use it.

Vantablack. Photo courtesy of Surrey NanoSystems.

When Semple found out about Kapoor’s Vantablack deal, however, he took offense—and saw an opportunity to promote his own experimentation with pigments, selling his own paints, which he began making as an eight-year-old.

Semple launched the world’s pinkest pink, followed by the “most glittery glitter,” a color-changing “unicorn” paint, and his own line of super matte black paints, most recently releasing Black 4.0.

The demand for these products is such that Semple and his nine-person staff struggle to keep up with demand. (The artist’s studio practice has also taken a back seat to producing his paints; Semple has completed just two of his own paintings over the last eight years.) Back orders can take months to fill. Semple has sold 100,000 bottles of the various black paints to artists in 52 countries since the initial launch.

A comparison of Stuart Semple’s black paints. Photo courtesy of Stuart Semple.

“I haven’t got rich from it or anything,” Semple said. “In fact, I’ve lost money doing it. But I believe in it and I want artists to have it. It costs a fortune to make the paint, and it’s really hard.”

These art supplies all come with some fine print: anyone is welcome to buy them except one particular artist. The purchasing conditions state that “To the best of your knowledge, information, and belief this material will not make it’s [sic] way into the hands of Anish Kapoor.” So what does that mean for Semple, now that he is Kapoor too? Is he banned from using his own art supplies?

Anish Kapoor in London. Photo by Rob Stothard/Getty Images.

“That was really funny. 
I didn’t think about that until someone on the internet said, ‘Hang on a minute!'” Semple admitted. “But I can still make the paint and use it in my work, I think. Legally, he’s banned from buying it, and anyone’s not really allowed to buy it for him, but I should be all right.”

The original Kapoor did manage to track down some Pinkest Pink, and took a photo of his middle finger dipped into the pigment. He also finally unveiled his first Vantablack works in 2022, at a museum show during the Venice Biennale.

Installation view of Anish Kapoor’s exhibition at the Palazzo Manfrin, Venice. Photo ©David Levene.

Semple, at least, was underwhelmed.

“After all those years with the exclusive rights, I expected something 
perhaps a little bit more exciting to be done with it,” he said. “I think there are limitations with the material. That show was all about the material, and I think the concept was lacking a little bit.”

I asked Semple if he ever feels bad about continuing to stoke the fires of his almost entirely one-sided feud with Kapoor, now eight years old.

A legal form changing Stuart Semple’s name to Anish Kapoor, signed by Semple. Photo courtesy of Stuart Semple.

“That’s a really interesting question, because I don’t do it often. I think if I was only doing it to Anish, then that would be weird, but the work is so much broader than that,” Semple said. “And given that Anish doesn’t mind and he thinks it’s funny, it’s not actually nasty or horrible in any way.
It’s all lighthearted and and he takes it with a pinch of salt as well.
So I think it’s all right.”

“The thing that nobody knows about me is I’m actually quite a huge Kapoor fan in terms of his work,” he added. “I don’t think the Vantablack works are his best work by a long shot—but when he’s good, he’s really, really good.”