STAY Antony Gormley Education Resource

12 Pages·2015·6.53 MB·English

Antony Gormley, STAY (2015) Computer render image courtesy of the artist.
STAY
Antony Gormley

Education Resource

Resource produced by
SCAPE Public Art
Generously supported by:
Contents
2 How to Use This Resource
2 Making the Most of Your Visit to the Artworks
3 Antony Gormley Biography
4 Themes Within Gormley’s Work
- The Body
- Art and Spirituality
- Beyond the Gallery: The Figure in Nature
6 STAY (2015)
7 Making the Work
10 References
1 Antony Gormley Education Resource STAY
How to Use This Resource
This Education Resource has been designed to support
educators in creating exciting and engaging learning
opportunities before, during and after their visit to renowned
British artist Antony Gormley’s work STAY.
It provides background information about Antony Gormley and
the making of STAY (2015), and includes activity suggestions
in relation to the work. These could form part of a project
before, during, or after a visit to see the work. Informed by the
New Zealand Curriculum the pack is designed to be tailored
to various year groups from Year 1 through to Year 13 and
beyond, using different approaches as age appropriate.
Making the Most of Your Visit to the Artworks
Before you visit STAY, find out about some of Antony After your visit use these prompts as suggestions for
Gormley’s other artworks. This is Gormley’s first sculpture follow up activities:
in New Zealand, but the examples of his work are found
internationally. Do any of your students know any of his works Review any initial mind-maps and see how the artist
already? Record which pieces they have heard of and what considered those elements.
prior knowledge they have. Produce a collaborative mind-map
which explores all things you need to consider when placing Try drawing a figure made from another geometric shape,
an artwork outside in the environment, using sketches and e.g. cubes, spheres, hexagons.
other visual information to present the ideas.
Take a photo of a location where you could place an
Address these key words through discussion and develop artwork and plan an artwork that would be suitable for this
a simple key word bank or glossary of definitions to place. Consider what you would make it from and what size
include the following: contemporary art, site-specific it would be. Draw the sculpture on its own, and then draw it
work, sculpture, figure, body, proportion, symbol, scale, in your chosen landscape.
monumental, installation, place, space, spirituality, reflection,
contemplation, iron, polyhedra, foundry. Research other sculptural artworks in Christchurch which
have a human figure. Where are they? What are they made
During your visit, take your time to look at each artwork and of? Are they sculptures of real people and, if so, who?
reflect on it. Use the following suggestions and questions as Compare and contrast one of these works to Gormley’s.
a way to help the learners respond to the work:
Investigate other works Gormley has made. How is this
Record information in a range of ways through work similar or different? Create a list of similarities
photography, drawings and notes in a sketchbook or on and differences think about location, materials, making
paper. Attach these in sketchbooks later. processes, the figure, scale.
Discuss the artworks with each other. Ask questions! Create a presentation which compares STAY with another
Consider why the artist has worked in this way. Discuss if work from Gormley. Write a journal report or blog about
and why you think the artwork is in a suitable place. your visit to look at the artworks. Use your recordings
from the visit to create more artworks in response to your
Guess how many polyhedra are in the figure? experience of STAY using this work as inspiration.
What other geometric shapes can you see in the figure?
Antony Gormley Education Resource STAY 2
Antony Gormley Biography
British artist Antony Gormley is widely acclaimed for his Award for Sculpture in 2007, the Obayashi Prize in 2012 and
sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the Praemium Imperiale in 2013. In 1997 he was made an
the relationship of the human body to space. Through a Officer of the British Empire (OBE) and was made a knight
critical engagement with both his own body and those of in the New Year’s Honours list in 2014. He is an Honorary
others, his work has developed the potential, opened up Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, an
by sculpture since the 1960s, to confront fundamental Honorary Doctor of the University of Cambridge and a Fellow
questions of where human beings stand in relation to nature of Trinity and Jesus Colleges, Cambridge. Gormley has been
and the cosmos. Gormley continually tries to identify the a Royal Academician since 2003.
space of art as a place of becoming in which new behaviours,
thoughts and feelings can arise. ‘Antony Gormley was born in London in 1950 into a Roman
Catholic family, the youngest of seven children. His mother
Gormley’s work has been widely exhibited throughout the was German and his father was Irish. He attended the
UK and internationally. His permanent public works include Benedictine boarding school in Yorkshire, Ampleforth College,
the ANGEL OF THE NORTH (Gateshead, England); ANOTHER which he regards as a formative experience.’ 1
PLACE (Crosby Beach, England); INSIDE AUSTRALIA (Lake
Ballard, Western Australia), and EXPOSURE (Lelystad, the ‘I was brought up by monks and I think there is a part of me
Netherlands). Gormley has won multiple awards and his work that is indelibly touched or formed, by that idea of a mix of
is held in significant collections worldwide. silent contemplation, active work, and then some kind of
labour that is between the two.’
Gormley was awarded the Turner Prize in 1994, the South
Bank Prize for Visual Art in 1999, the Bernhard Heiliger – from 2014 BBC Four’s What Do Artists Do All Day? (March, 2014)

3 Antony Gormley Education Resource STAY Antony Gormley, photo by Oak Taylor-Smith.
Themes Within Gormley’s Work
The Body Art and Spirituality
‘Since the early 1980s, Gormley has consistently made work ‘The challenge for contemporary art is to engage with the
that focuses on the human body. He has described that contemporary world without adding to the noise. I would like the
he works with the body as it is the fundamental space in work to make eloquent stillness and silence and to let us make
which we all live and because there are so many possibilities contact with our whole selves so that we can take our place
contained within it for how we can use and experience it. He within the persistent phenomena of light, space, and nature.’
generally uses his own body as his starting point and has
explored this in many different ways. – from Journal of Contemporary Art,
www.jca-online.com/gormley.html (1991)
Throughout the 1980s Gormley worked with groupings of
figures and, during the late 1980s, began exploring his interest
in multiple, collaborative pieces, creating his first FIELD in
1989. Over the years that followed, he became one of Britain’s
best-known sculptors, creating both gallery-based works and
a number of ambitious public projects which explore the body,
relationships, consciousness and collectivity.’ 2
Gormley’s work explores the body as a place rather than an
object. The human aspects of the form interest the artist: the
person as an individual, as a social creature and as an object
in relation to space and the natural world.
1 Fiona Godfrey, Field for the British Isles Education
Information Pack.
2 Fiona Godfrey, Field for the British Isles Education
Information Pack.
Antony Gormley Education Resource STAY 4
Themes Within Gormley’s Work
Beyond the Gallery: The Figure in Nature ANOTHER PLACE and HORIZON FIELD both consist of 100 life-
sized, solid cast-iron figures of the human body. In ANOTHER
‘Gormley is one of a number of sculptors who have PLACE the figures are installed across Crosby Beach in
experimented with different locations for sculpture, both in and England, with the ones closest to the horizon standing on
outside of the gallery. His works have been seen on mountains, the sand and those nearer the shore buried progressively.
in city squares, on beaches and in deserts. In the gallery The figures in ANOTHER PLACE engage with time and tide,
context, his sculptures sometimes hang from the ceiling or stillness and movement, and the daily activity on the beach. 4
create a tension with the gallery wall. His work often challenges
our perceptions, inviting the viewer to see the space in which
the sculpture is located in new and different ways.
Gormley has always been interested in the relationship
between art works and the places in which they are sited.
Speaking in 2005, he recognised a dilemma for contemporary
sculptors, saying:’ 3
‘Sculpture may now have come down from its plinth and
where it belongs is perhaps not very clear.’
– from a 2005 Guardian article by Nicholas Wroe
Gormley has installed works in many locations of
environmental significance and natural beauty including:
Antony Gormley, HORIZON FIELD, August 2010 - April 2012, A Landscape
ANOTHER PLACE (1997), Crosby Beach, England, and HORIZON Installation in the High Alps of Vorarlberg, Austria, 100 life-size, solid
FIELD (2010 – 2012), High Alps of Vorarlberg, Austria. cast iron figures of the human body, spread over an area of 150 square
kilometres (detail view), Presented by Kunsthaus Bregenz, Photograph
by Markus Tretter, © Antony Gormley and Kunsthaus Bregenz.
One hundred life-sized, solid cast-iron figures spread over an
area of 150 square kilometres in the communities of Mellau,
Schoppernau, Schröcken, Warth, Mittelberg, Lech, Klösterle,
and Dalaas. The works formed a horizontal line at 2039 metres
above sea level, an altitude that is both readily accessible but
at the same time lies beyond the realm of everyday life.
“HORIZON FIELD asks: where does the human project fit within
the evolution of life on this planet? The works form a field in
which living bodies and active minds are involved in measuring
the space and distance through the field of these static iron
bodies … [and] recognises the deep connection between social
and geological territory; between landscape and memory.” 5
ANOTHER PLACE (1997)
Cast iron 100 elements: each 189 x 53 x 29 cm
3 Fiona Godfrey, Field for the British Isles Education
Installation view, Crosby, Merseyside, UK
Information Pack.
Photograph by Stephen White, London © The Artist
4 www.antonygormley.com/projects/item-view/id/230#p0
5 www.antonygormley.com/projects/item-view/id/281#p0
5 Antony Gormley Education Resource STAY
STAY (2015)
STAY is a new legacy work for Christchurch commissioned STAY comprises two identical works that translate a human
by Christchurch City Council Public Art Advisory Group. body into a rising form of bold crystalline cells. Each of them
Comprised of two identical cast-iron figures from his link time, place and consciousness. They look down: one into
POLYHEDRA SERIES, the work responds to the context of the moving waters of the Ōtākaro Avon River and the other
Christchurch in 2015, a city in the throes of reconstruction, the paved ground of the Arts Centre. They are made of a
where retrospect and remembrance intermingle with future concentrated earth material – iron. The works take a single
plans on a daily basis. The figures are contemplative: they moment of human time and place it in two distinct contexts: a
appear to look inward, yet they also gaze out towards some tree-lined river where the trees were unscathed and the river
distant horizon, evoking the human desire to find connection, never ceased to flow, and a historic building that, although
to situate oneself in a place called home. damaged, survived the quake. Sited in the colonnade of the
Arts Centre’s cloister, the work is glimpsed laterally within the
The project will be installed in two parts. The first figure, horizontal shelter of an imposed architectural order, while the
as part of SCAPE 8 New Intimacies, will be installed mid- other is immersed in nature. In these places the materialised
current in the CERA Te Papa Ōtākaro Avon River Precinct memory of this particular body acts as measure and marker,
project, to offer a point of reflection and contemplation in a both in a built habitat and the elemental world.
natural environment which seems comparatively unchanged
by Christchurch’s recent history. The second figure will be STAY is non-monumental, at human scale. Neither a landmark
installed in the Northern Quadrangle of the Arts Centre of nor an icon, it is a quiet catalyst for reflection, a form of
Christchurch in early 2016 – a site which bears the memory acupuncture to revitalise a traumatised urban field.
of the effects of the quake – in celebration of the site’s Each piece in STAY marks a place, but also talks to a time
restoration and the resilience of the people. that does not yet exist.
In the artist’s own words: Both parts of the work are sited to provide an opportunity for
contemplation, to consider one’s internal (spiritual) horizons.
“Christchurch is a well-ordered city based on a 19th century urban Their life-size scale makes them accessible and the abstracted
plan, which suddenly became chaotic through planetary forces form suggests the shell of a figure in which the viewer can
rupturing human design. SCAPE presents the ideal opportunity to imagine themselves.
ask whether art can instigate and give space for new attitudes and
begin to heal and encourage reconciliation. Post-quake, this city is As the artist has said, “… art has to return us to our inner
a human habitat forced by nature to reformulate. The attitude of selves. We must think about the body less as an object that
the work I have made for it carries a sense of reflection or ‘taking can be sexualized or idealized and more as a place,
stock’. It’s an old cliché, but in every disaster there’s opportunity. a location, a condition.” 6
Can memory be reconciled with anticipation? Can renewal bring a
new sense of self and city by acknowledging the private, intimate In this context, the figure in the river offers a point of
and personal in two very different public spaces?” reflection. The river flows, as it always has, through the town.
The whispers in the waters remind us of its history, of the
people who have lived and will live along its banks. It allows
us to think of ourselves ‘within’ the continuum of life, flowing,
connected. Gormley’s stationary figure, arms at its side, legs
together – contemplative; reflecting on hidden depths; on
forms beneath the surface; shadows in the current. Watching.
Feeling. Deep in thought. Remembering and anticipating.
6 www.wallpaper.com/art/art-and-architecture-collide-in-
antony-gormleys-exhibition-at-hong-kongs-white-cube-gallery
Antony Gormley, STAY (2014), cast-iron, 184cm x 48cm x 44cm,
Photograph by Stephen White, London. Antony Gormley Education Resource STAY 6
Making the Work
‘Gormley is perhaps best known for his figures that are based To make STAY, the artist stands in the position he wants the
on casts of his own body. These create the sense of a trace of sculpture to have. He is then scanned to produce a 3D map.
somebody who existed in a particular place, but is no longer The body form is then translated into polyhedral forms using
there. He used to make these casts by covering himself in specially developed computer software, by taking points
cling film, so that his assistants could cover him in plaster and throughout the body and giving those values of density and
scrim. The whole process would take around an hour and a half. size. More points on the body are used and they are given
The process would become something of a meditation, as the values of weight and pressure to form a crystalline matrix.
process required him to stay still for several hours at a time,
which could be really painful at times. This is how the form takes shape and it is worked on until the
desired shape is created. A wooden pattern is constructed
Today’s computer technology means that he can accurately which is then made into a fibreglass cast with geometric
create a three-dimensional (3D) version of his body by precision, smooth flat surfaces, sharp corners and straight
scanning, rather than through casting. He can use this edges, ready to be cast. The casting process then takes place
technology to deconstruct, stretch and manipulate the at the foundry. At the foundry the fibreglass cast is made into
volume of his body, while still retaining a sense of gesture, a two-part sand mould. The sand mould is formed around
pose and proportion.’ 7 the pattern so that when the pattern is removed it leaves a
cavity into which molten iron is poured, forming the casting.
The mould is filled with molten iron, poured at about 1320
degrees Celsius. The iron sculpture is then finished carefully
by removing the ingates and before sandblasting to give
it a uniform surface.
STAY is a 1.84 metre tall, cast-iron figure composed of
multifaceted, polyhedral shapes. There are two form-finding
principles employed in the creation of the Polyhedra Series:
“Firstly, regular polygons: the natural forms of hexagons that
are familiar to us, as found in basalt rock formations or in
beehives. Secondly, the bubble-matrix: the most efficient way
of bounding space that is found in all forms, the inner structure
of bone or a reed. It allows the generation of many-sided
polygons from tetrahedrons to rhombicosidodecahedrons, and
is both disciplined and random.” 8

In STAY, the figure’s head appears tilted down slightly, arms by
its sides and with the feet coming together at the base.
7 Fiona Godfrey, Field for the British Isles Education
Information Pack.
8 Polyhedra Works, 2008-2015,
www.antonygormley.com/sculpture/item-view/id/280#p0
Fibreglass pattern for casting STAY, 2014 © Antony Gormley
7 Antony Gormley Education Resource STAY
Making the Work

Studio view, preparation of pattern for casting STAY, 2014 Casting process for polyhedra work, Hargreaves Foundry, Halifax, 2014
© Antony Gormley © Antony Gormley
More from the POLYHEDRA SERIES:
Antony Gormley
CUMULATE, 2011
Cast iron Antony Gormley
180 x 47 x 50 cm FUSE II, 2011
Installation view, Middelheim Museum, 2 mm square section stainless steel bar
Antwerp, Belgium, 2013 24 x 205 x 60 cm
Photograph by Joris Casaer Photograph by Stephen White, London
© The Artist © The Artist
Antony Gormley Education Resource STAY 8
More from the POLYHEDRA SERIES:

Antony Gormley
2 X 2 II, 2012
Marble
194 x 47 x 40 cm (2 bodyforms)
Photograph by Ela Bialkowska, OKNO STUDIO
© The Artist
9 Antony Gormley Education Resource STAY