Antony Gormley

Landmarks are developed with a specific name, form, thematic references and concept. Public discourses negotiate the references of each landmark. In the process, the landmark is represented in various media, including merchandise and other en-passant-media. Due to this, the same landmark signifies different meanings in different representations. These develop their own communicative contexts and reference frames, with all of them referring back to the landmark itself. The meanings construct and negotiate not only the symbolic value and reference frame of each landmark, but also influence related place-­-images and the role of individual topics or objects in culture(s). The canonisation of landmarks and their appropriation by different social groups that create different readings and uses of the same geographical spaces is discussed in this paper focussing on the example of The Angel of the North.

Introdução Antony Gormley é aclamado pelas suas esculturas, instalações e obras de arte públicas que investigam a relação do corpo humano para com o espaço. O seu trabalho tem desenvolvido o potencial aberto pela escultura desde a década de 1960 através de um envolvimento crítico tanto com o seu próprio corpo como dos outros, de uma forma que confronta questões fundamentais de onde os seres humanos estão em relação á natureza e o cosmos. Tenta identificar continuamente o espaço da arte como um lugar de becoming (onde nos tornamos), no qual novos comportamentos, pensamentos e sentimentos podem surgir. Usando a sua própria existência como campo de teste, o trabalho de Gormley transforma um local de experiência subjectiva num de projeção colectiva. Cada vez mais, o artista tem vindo a levar a sua prática além da galeria, envolvendo o público numa participação ativa. Muitos dos seus trabalhos são baseados em moldes tirados do seu próprio corpo ou "a experiência mais próxima de matéria que alguma vez terei e a única parte do mundo material dentro do qual habito", afirma o próprio. A sua obra tenta tratar o corpo não como um objecto mas um lugar, e ao realizar obras que encerram o espaço de um corpo em particular, tenta identificar uma condição comum a todos os humanos. O seu trabalho não é simbólico mas indicial – Um vestígio de um evento real de um corpo real no tempo.

Introduction: What is being? Is it indefinable and incorporeal or tangibly real? It is probable that the ontological notion is fundamentally complex and unsolvable. Thus many philosophers have questioned and argued about the nature of being and attempted to seek answers to define its concept. And many conceptual artists in the contemporary era have investigated the subject of human existence and reflected on their works. It seems a universal concern. However it should not be regarded as a generalised idea. Equally, it should not be considered as an empty concept.

What does being itself indicate? We know it is a form of existence. There is no doubt that we know and understand that we are surrounded by existing things. However how, ultimately, have we come to exist in this world? According to Martin Heidegger, the activity of existing is defined as “being-in-the-world” (Dreyfus 1991: 40). He said that there is a relation between the human being and the world. [1] Human being entails being with others in a shared way of life in the world. Regarding the notion of “being-in” the world in this context, Heidegger stressed that the world is not to be conceived as the feature of spatiality, where objects are located (Dreyfus 1991: 40). It should rather be considered as an “involvement” with human beings, the world and with the other beings and things (Dreyfus 1991: 41). It refers not only to physical inclusion but also an existential sense of inclusion. In terms of relations, human beings connect to their own existence as well as the existence of others through the medium of the world (Dreyfus 1991).

Starting with this idea, this essay will explore a personal intellectual journey, focusing on Antony Gormley’s notion of the body and based on the ideas of Fritjof Capra, Tadao Ando and Martin Heidegger, which possibly illustrate the notion of relational being and non-anthropocentric being. The central idea of this essay is that Gormley’s casting figures express themselves through exploring the connection between physical and metaphysical self and the body in inter-relationship with the space and time in which we are equally involved with one another. Bodily presence is made aware of the connection between mind and body. In this regard, the perception of existence in the world comes about through interdependence of all things such as a fact, situation or action rather than as acknowledged by itself. Thus the sensibility of existence can be clarified in relational being.

I will begin by considering Gormley’s own idea of sculpture. It is manifested in the relationship between our minds and physical space and time. This idea will be explored here with reference to Capra’s notion of the inseparable connection between living beings and the world. Through the exploration, this essay will observe Gormley’s notion of the human body, which is the significant focus in his work of his concern with human existence. Considering the ontological idea, this paper will illustrate Gormley’s body-cast, which is the dominant process in the creation of his sculptural works. In connection with this artistic process, in this part, I will examine the notion of body-casting as a meditative art. It is based on Buddhist meditation as a function of the artist’s spiritual self-awareness. Through a thorough consideration of the meditative art, this paper will also attempt to examine Gormley’s concerns of the relation between body and space based on Ando’s relational notion between shintai and space. According to this idea, the body can be acknowledged as the world as well as the self. This essay will then explore the body as being space and being in space through a review of Gormley’s public installation, Broken Column at Stavanger, Norway in 2003. Here, the body denotes the implications of internal and external space and place in relation to the psychological and emotional aspects of the human mind.

Through the deliberations of the relationship between the body and space, this paper will examine the notion of bodily being in time with particular reference to Gormley’s sculptural installation works, Bed 1981 and Still IV 1994. In consideration of Heidegger’s notion of unified relationship between being and time, Gormley’s human body shapes in various postures imply bodily presence at a particular moment in time rather than merely presenting artificial sculptural figures. Through the exploration of his works, I will conclude that Gormley’s notion of body represents relational being in space and time.

[1] Heidegger used the word Dasein to describe the human being with the meaning of human existence or presence. It is derived from da-sein, which literally means being-there and there-being. It can refer to a way of being that is characteristic of people or a person-a human being (Dreyfus 1991).

Si propone ai ragazzi un modo di guardare all'arte contemporanea profondamente connesso con il passato e con la loro propria esperienza personale, volto perciò a permettere la lettura e l'immedesimazione con gli autori e le forme anche più lontane dai canoni attraverso i fatti più semplici dell'esistenza: "mind, body, space" (Gormley)

The relation between politics and art is increasingly debated within contemporary political philosophy and critical theory. This essay focuses on Chantal Mouffe’s negotiation of this relation, which forms an integral part of her agonistic pluralist project. In particular, it aims at critically exploring the role of artistic practices in re-politicising a largely de-politicised, post-democratic public space: what are the challenges such a re-politicisation poses? At any rate, although re-politicisation can be the only response to post-democracy, it needs to avoid its own absolutisation/idealisation. From a radical democratic point of view, the need for re-politicisation is thus a need for a post-utopian, self-critical, cautious, agonistic re-politicisation. What is the role artistic practices can play in this enterprise? Recent art projects by Antony Gormley and William Kentridge will be presented and discussed in order to illuminate the political relevance of contemporary art. They both seem to embody elements central in Mouffe’s agonistic pluralism and can also develop it in new directions.

This paper covers some aspects in the art of Antony Gormley, contemporary British Sculptor — in particular, his stance toward the classical sculptural tradition, modes of representation of the human body, the notion of space in sculpture, and communication between Gormley's works and the spectator. /// Статья посвящена некоторым аспектам творчества современного британского скульптора Энтони Гормли — в частности, его связям с классической скульптурной традицией, способам репрезентации человеческого тела, категории пространства в скульптуре и коммуникации произведений Гормли со зрителем.

Un'indagine nella storia dell'arte e un laboratorio didattico seguendo il filo di quella creatività che nasce da un dialogo con le possibilità della materia e con un "prompted chance", un caso provocato che conduce ad una immagine più potentemente evocativa.

Although close to the conglomeration of galleries in Chelsea, the Sean Kelly Gallery is slightly removed by a few blocks. The traffic on 10th Avenue and bustling construction are continuous. The new show, Antony Gormley: Construct, contrasts this urban noise through its minimal curatorial approach and quiet uncluttered atmosphere. In each of the three high ceilinged gallery rooms up to four sculptures are displayed. Two new large-scale works, Bond I and Bond II, both made of rectilinear iron beams, are situated in the lower gallery, and act as an oversized reclining body that fully utilizes the horizontality of the space. And a tall standing figure that emphasizes the verticality of the space. The echo of a larger built world – the same as the one that exists outside the gallery and that is transforming New York—is visible in Gormley's Scaffold (2015) series. Again steel is used, but rather than in solid rectilinear blocks as in Bond (2015) series, thin lines of silver form squares and construct an upright free standing figure. The space in between the lines that comprise Scaffold is as important as the thin solid formed structure. The steel framed that provides strength is light and less dense. One of Gormley's large installations Asian Field (2003) comprises 210,000 hand sized clay figures, made with 350 people from Xiangshan village, China, and is a stark contrast with the uncluttered approach in Construct. Consistently, Gormley's assembled bodies are a part of different urban environments. As such, each of his sculptural series suggest that the audience are able to transform the space around them while highlighting the body as a site of transformation.

Kotlomanov A.O. "New British Sculpture" and the Russian art context — "Новая британская скульптура" и российский художественный контекст // Вестн. С.-Петерб. гос. ун-та. Сер. 15. Искусствоведение. 2016. Вып. 3. С. 38—48.
The article examines the works of leading representatives of the " New British Sculpture " Tony Cragg and Antony Gormley. The relevance of the text is related to Tony Cragg's recent retrospective at the Hermitage Museum. Also it reviews the circumstances of realizing the 2011 exhibition project of Ant-ony Gormley at the Hermitage. The problem is founded on the study of the practice of contemporary sculpture of the last thirty years. The author discusses the relationship of art and design and the role of the financial factors in contemporary art culture. The text is provided with examples of individual theoretical and self-critical statements of Tony Cragg and Antony Gormley. It makes a comparison of the Western European art context and Russian tendencies in this field as parallel trends of creative thinking. Final conclusions formulate the need to revise the criteria of art theory and art criticism from the point of recognition of new commercial art and to determine its role in the culture of our time. Refs 5. Figs 7.

If you abolish my consciousness . . . matter resolves itself into numberless vibrations, all linked together in uninterrupted continuity, all bound up with each other, and traveling in every direction like shivers. In short, try first to connect together the discontinuous objects of daily experience; then, resolve the motionless continuity of these qualities into vibrations, which are moving in place; finally, attach yourself to these movements, by freeing yourself from the divisible space that underlies them in order to consider only their mobility—this undivided act that your consciousness grasps in the movement that you yourself execute. You will obtain a vision of matter that is perhaps fatiguing for your imagination, but pure and stripped of what the requirements of life make you add to it in external perception. —Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory

Antony Gormley's works in this exhibition are clustered around the implications of the Greek word 'ataxia', which refers to an absence of order. It is a term used most frequently to identify a medical condition in which a loss of coordination is progressive and attributed to a dysfunction of the nervous system. Of all the major bodily systems, the nervous system is the most modern, the most recent to come to light, and the most difficult to control; in many respects it remains mysterious, beyond even imaginative reach. From the beginning of his practice as a sculptor Gormley has maintained a curiosity about the power and limitations of scientific knowledge and a determination to synchronize and fuse innovation in the field of sculpture with cutting-edge research in several scientific fields, such as molecular biology, quantum mechanics and computer imaging. But the distinction of his work resides in the imaginative excess of its configuration of elements, its response to installation contexts, its juxtaposition of sculpture and the environment. It is partly his dependence on the advances of the scientific imagination that enables him to project his work beyond it. Gormley's earliest deployments of the human figure preserved the barrier of the skin as the basis of its integrity, but has in the last years begun a consideration of consideration of other subcutaneous forms of organization that are less precisely symmetrical and even somewhat rhizomic. But even in these works that go literally under the skin, that seem to run the gamut of biological and chemical networks within the body, the resulting complex structures have mostly been contained within postures that allude unmistakeably to the architecture of the classical body. Vitruvius is cited as the origin of conceptions of the body that relate its structure to geometrical forms and the classical orders of architecture. His treatise is the only surviving work of architectural theory from antiquity and is therefore the earliest possible source for correlative statements about the body and stereotypical form: Therefore, since nature has designed the human body so that its members are duly proportioned to the frame as a whole, it appears that the ancients had good reason for their rule, that in perfect buildings the different members must be in exact symmetrical relations to the whole general scheme. However, while transmitting to us the proper arrangements for buildings of all kinds, they were particularly careful to do so in the case of temples of the gods, buildings in which merits and faults usually last forever[1]. Vitruvius not only attributes his principles of design to 'nature', he also gives them a temporal scope reaching into the distant past of the 'ancients' and the distant future of temples that must last forever. Sacred buildings must transcend human history (even if, in the Rome of Vitruvius, they are badly in need of repairs). The tradition that descends from Vitruvius through Alberti and Leonardo da Vinci—whose sketch of the human body contained within the forms of square and circle is perhaps the most widely disseminated of all images of humanity—has established the power over our imaginations of representations of the body that emphasise the desirability of conforming to standard. The geometrical aspirations of the classical tradition in sculpture have been secured by depictions of the body that illustrate the mathematical ratios governing its equilibrium, its assimilation to the fundamental imperatives of balance and symmetry. And yet this fixing of an ideal form as the basis of the way the body is imagined has erected principles of uniformity that do not exist outside of the classical tradition. There is no uniformity of body type even within the species of homo sapiens, let alone among related species whose extinction was guaranteed by the relationship between the proportions of the human body and questions of power and efficiency, not of aesthetics. Gormley's ongoing research into our constantly mutating understanding of the body has reached the point of both tactical and strategic resistance to the fetishizing of order that has universalized a body type produced by the chances of history. Even the Vitruvian moment that generated what became known ultimately as the universal body type was not the summation of a long tradition of thought but the immediate response to specific historical pressures. Recent scholarship has explored the extent of its debt to the requirements of power and efficiency in eliciting ideological conformity to the goals of Roman imperialism. Vitruvian theory did not crystallize the relationship between architecture and the body in general, but between architecture and the specific body of the Emperor Augustus himself. In this reading, architecture becomes the medium for rendering coherent the Roman presence throughout the known world; a policy of building everywhere according to the same principles is what persuades a variety of peoples with different cultures of the orderliness and rationality of the changes wrought in their lives; the fact that the uniformity imposed on their lives from without matches a uniformity found or imagined within, in the proportions of the human body, reinforces the seeming inevitability of their assimilation to the empire; the knowledge that every

Mass production that started with the Industrial Revolution, and the art movements that successively appeared with modernism and the psychological pressure of World Wars I and II affected the artist's way of expression. This development process in art started with Dada, and was followed by Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Conceptual Art and Neorealism. During this period, the perception of uniqueness of an artwork was surpassed an an object or item from daily life started to be exhibited in art galleries. Artworks were made using an object in a composition, and this tendency started to be used by artists. Two artists who made their projects in ceramics are chosen in the research, and it is discussed why they used thousands of objects, and the conceptual perception of the work through the examples of 'Sunflower Seeds' by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and 'Field in the British Isles' by English artist Antony Gormley.