“Sculpture's central purpose in confronting the materiality of the body with another materiality is to engage the imagination, to make links with all that lies beyond the palpable and the observable, deep in space or deep in the unconscious mind.”
Antony Gormley

Antony Gormley is the first artist to speak about an object that inspires him, in a new series from Thaddaeus Ropac called Artist’s Eye. In this short video, made at his home, Gormley explains why the object he has chosen means so much to him.

“Here is this thing that has taken millions of years to make, a molecule at a time, and yet it ends up with this absolute form ,with an absolute surface tension, with a kind of sculptural integrity.

So here is sculpture made without a sculptor. Here is a Henry Moore made without Henry Moore.

Why is it inspiring?

It’s because, yes, it fits in the hand.

And because, yes, it is a form that calls upon many forms of organic life.

Why is this precious to me?

Because, this is as it were, a sculpture made by the processes of nature, without the hand of man that, nevertheless, speaks to us about life, about our place within the sequence of time and life that we are part of.

This is a gift of the earth to the hand, to the heart, and to the mind.

I suppose I would like to make things that are as inevitable as this, that have a gentle but open connection to everything that already exists. That invites us to think about what our relationship is to the earth, to time, and to space…

It continues to make me want to make things that are as connective and but also as elusive as this.

This took millions of years to make, will last for many thousands more years, and remains for me while my life exists as a continual inspiration to go on finding and seeking forms that can touch heart and mind.”

“For over 40 years, British sculptor Antony Gormley's work has focused on what it feels like to inhabit the human body. From intimate sculptures casting his own form and collaborative community projects to architecture explorations on a grand scale, his work can be seen around the world on shorelines and clifftops, tower blocks and in cathedrals. Influenced by the dialogue between arts and the spiritual, anthropology and science, he asks questions about our place in the world.”

From Bloomberg’s Brilliant Ideas: Episode 40, November 2016

Gormley’s studies in Buddhism and meditation have shaped much of his work, but it was early childhood experiences that first had a fundamental impact on his thinking about the body.

“I was sent upstairs to have a rest immediately after lunch. Keen to please, I would lie there, still, with my eyes firmly shut. It would induce this feeling of panic, claustrophobia, of being cooked alive.

What I discovered, though, was that if you stayed in it long enough, your experience of this very bright, claustrophobic, hot, matchbox-like space just behind your eyes would change. It would get cooler, and darker and bigger.

Eventually, you would be in this space, floating in a cool, dark infinity.

What started as an imposition ended up as this place of freedom.

And then, I guess I reconnected with that space later.”

In this video from the Royal Academy of Arts, the artist describes a recent installation piece that illustrates how this experience from childhood has influenced his work.

“I learned to dwell in it. I think a lot of the work comes out of that—turning what starts as claustrophobia or containment into something that is releasing and infinite, the paradox that we live within a body that has a skin that is our bounding condition and yet have this faculty of imaginative extension into endless space.”

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