Antony Gormley

 
'I want to use sculpture to throw us back into the world, to provide this place where the magic, the subtlety, the extraordinary nature of out first-hand experience is celebrated, enhanced, made more present.' Antony Gormley

This retrospective of Antony Gormley's work at the Royal Academy is absolutely superb. It is an exhibition of an artist at the height of his powers, an ambitious display over all of the main galleries that also showcases the playfulness and interactive nature of Gormley's work. The logistics of the technical and engineering challenges must have been immense and a real challenge to both the curators and the RA. The exhibition begins in the Academy's courtyard with a small unobtrusive little statue - Iron Baby, 1999, a cast of the artists daughter. Iron Baby appears tiny, prone and vulnerable in such a large open space. I liked the idea of placing such a tiny, easily overlooked piece here, in marked contrast to the massive, statement sculptural installations which usually command attention filling the courtyard (here), and (here). It was really interesting to observe the visitor interaction with this particular piece. Children and teenagers had little respect for it, kicking and standing on it. Whereas middle-aged women, perhaps mothers themselves, displayed more maternal instincts, bending to stroke and caress it.

Iron Baby

 The exhibition proper opens with a room of Gormley's Slabworks.

Then in the following room revisits some of his earliest pieces.

One Apple

Blanket Drawing V

Mother's Pride

Grasp

 Exercise Between Blood and Earth 


The next space containing Clearing, is immersive and fantastic. 


 
Clearing

Clearing is an astonishing piece. I loved the placement by a mother of this actual baby in the middle of the frenetic aluminium tubes of Gormley's 'drawing in space'. Although having fun, her position reminded me of the vulnerability of Iron Baby in the courtyard. As visitors precariously negotiated their way through it, the coils of Clearing made some interesting noises rattling against each other, and left a range of scuff marks on the gallery walls too, which were all integral parts of the sculpture.

Iron Baby

After negotiating the frenzy of Clearing, visitors arrive in the relative calm and starkness of a room inhabited by the single sculpture - Subject II.

 Co-Ordinate VI

Is a challenging piece of sculpture - three steel bars that slices through the spaces of four of the galleries representing the physical and infinity.

Matrix III

The massive, metallic grid-cloud of Matrix III hovers ominously overhead further into the exhibition.

The rooms containing Gormley's sketchbooks and drawings were very impressive and of particular interest. It was a great opportunity to see the development of his thought and design processes laid bare.

Lost Horizon I
 

Gormley's signature figure sculptures projecting from ceiling, wall and floor created the most wonderfully surreal space. Although arranged as a group they were self-contained, having a strange sense of isolation and alienation about them, just concerned with holding their own, and occupying their own space. This room was fantastic.

Body and Fruit

 These pieces were huge, pendulous and weighty, though appeared to defy gravity.

Body and Fruit

Concrete Works

I loved the minimal traces of the human body found in these concrete blocks. I think it is these touches that distinguish Gormley's work.

Cave

Cave must have been another huge challenge for the planners. It is another immersive environment on an ambitious scale in which visitors engage with the work, whilst again becoming aware of their own bodies in relation to the space. Cave is another abstract Gormley body lying in a foetal position. A dark, slightly claustrophobic, maze-like construction in which visitors enter through the 'feet' and emerge in a cave-like torso illuminated by shafts of light.

Host

Another wonderfully still, contemplative space, full of seawater and clay resembling a silty primordial soup. I loved the differences between the apparent simplicity of this organic work, the sophistication of its architectural setting, and his more famous metallic pieces. It was a gentle, reflective way to bring the exhibition to a close.

Antony Gormley
until 3rd December
The Royal Academy of Art
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London