Studio Sunday: Antony Gormley
Born in London in 1950, Antony Gormley is an artist who makes large sculptural installations that look at the human body and the way it takes up and interacts with space. His sculptures are often public and site-specific, allowing a further level of interaction between the viewer and their own body, and the art piece that emulates the same form.
Gormley’s studio takes up multiple spaces located a large warehouse with high ceilings and bright lighting. In the photo, I can see sculptures on almost every surface – some on the floor, some on the walls, even a few hanging from the ceiling. A large studio space like this would be ideal for such large scale works, especially those that involve metal working. Gormley frequently uses metal casts as the basis for his artworks and often creates the moulds based on his own body. His studio is well-designed for these types of projects, with metal-working equipment and garage doors that open to the outdoors for good ventilation.
Antony’s works almost always feature the human body in some form, often placing it in bizarre, ominous settings. In Another Place, which he produced in 1997, 100 cast-iron figures based off of Gromley’s own body shape stand on a beach near Liverpool, facing out toward the ocean. 2007’s Event Horizon placed 31 casts of Gromley’s figure on the top corners of buildings first in London, and then a few years later on buildings in Manhattan. Gormley won the Turner prize in 1994.