Having spent a sobering morning at the British Museum, seeing ‘Moctezuma – Aztec Ruler’, it was positively fun and light hearted to experience Anish Kapoor’s major solo exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. The works stimulated my creative imagination and played tricks on my mind. Approaching the entrance to the Royal Academy, Tall Tree and the Eye stands in the courtyard, reflecting the attractive architecture in the 76 highly polished stainless steel spheres. It made me think of a Christmas tree and I imagined it looking magical with falling snow reflecting in the spheres.

I moved from the first room containing a select group of Kapoor’s early pigment sculptures, to Yellow in the second room, I imagined the sun radiating warmth and colour. I didn’t realise at first that this is a 3D work, receding into the wall.

As I turned to my left, I was shocked to see what I thought were dead bodies (my reaction was probably linked to the morning reading about Aztec sacrifices of human hearts to the gods). This third room contains the major exhibit Shooting into the Corner where projectiles of red wax are fired into a corner by a cannon every 20 minutes or so throughout the exhibition, providing an ever increasing build up of wax on the floor and walls. I watched while the cannon was loaded, the wax heated and the cannon fired. The suspense exploded for the expectant audience and I felt we should all revisit the exhibition to see how big the pile of wax gets. It should be a major cleaning job to get the wax off the ceiling, walls, doorframe and floor.

Next stop was a room full of beguiling mirror polished stainless steel sculptures where everyone was laughing at their changing reflections in the different shapes. Legs bent out as if made of rubber, stretched thin bodies, upside down reflections. This is one exhibit where the audience really interact with one another, laughing, speculating about the works and sharing the childish fun.

The highlight of the exhibition is Svayambh, a giant red wax Hovis loaf (that was my interpretation) travelling on railway lines across the entire breadth of Burlington house, through doorways between rooms, taking 90 minutes to complete the journey before returning down the tracks. People gathered to watch and speculate about the giant wax block. It was fascinating to watch it squeeze through the door frames.

Hive made me think of a rusty submarine from the outside, but looking into the dark interior through the oval hole I couldn’t help but think of an anus! I would have liked to climb inside Hive to explore the dark cave interior.

Greyman Cries, Shaman Dies, Billowing Smoke, Beauty Evoked, a body of cement sculptures and the most recent of Kapoor’s works, I thought of worm casts, noodles, baskets, faeces and rock formations. It’s a room full of sculptures to move around and look inside.

Slug could be intestines connected to a vulva or it could be a triffid. I imagined swimming pool slides and full red lips. In the room next door, the giant red wax hovis loaf was just completing its journey to the end of the line and an audience had gathered to watch. I bought the exhibition book which contains a number of other Kapoor works that are not included in the exhibit.

For those new to Anish Kapoor, he was born in Bombay in 1954, moved to London in 1973 and has an artistic career that spans more than 30 years.