antony gormley: 'fit' relates landscapes to the human body

antony gormley presents the ‘fit’ exhibition in bermondsey, london, marking his 10th show for white cube gallery. configured into a labyrinth with 15 chambers, visitors will be faced with a choice of passage through different sized and uniquely lit spaces, holding dramatic encounters in each one. it contrasts as a sequel to his 2012 ‘model’ exhibition at the gallery, and presents the relation between individuals and building environments.

sleeping field, 2016
© antony gormley | photograph © stephen white, london [also main image]

no more is this idea, which challenges the issues of landscapes, migrants and inclusiveness, reflected than in the expansive ‘sleeping field’ installation. comprised of over 500 small iron sculptures, antony gormley’s field initially looks like a carpet of charcoal grey blocks and a landscape of high and low-rise buildings. on closer reflection, the forms present a vast collection of hundreds of despairing individual bodies that are displaced, redundant and at rest.

sleeping field, 2016
© antony gormley | photograph © stephen white, london

the relation between scale and the human body continues from chamber to chamber in the labyrinth. sir antony presents many completely new works, such as; the continuous cast iron line, ‘RUN’; the immense 13-tonne concrete sculpture, ‘BLOCK’; and the ‘PASSAGE’, a 12 meter long tunnel that encourages guests to journey into its darkness. as well as these, the exhibit shows other creations that he has made over the past two years. this includes; the ‘scaffold’ and the ‘construct’ sculptures, which were on display at the sean kelly gallery in new york, USA, earlier in 2016.

big charge, 2014 (left), and big shy, 2016 (right)
© antony gormley | photograph © white cube (ben westoby)

‘I began to realize that what the objects could do to each other, and how they could activate the space, was actually much more important than just letting them fight it out without acknowledging their particular language and form,‘ gormley tells designboom. ‘it became really extraordinary how the making of the chambers became instrumented in themselves. this looked at what would be in the them, and how the exhibition would work in terms of every space having to be reinforced or a contradiction with the previous ‘model’ exhibition.’

stay tuned for the full interview feature with antony gormley on designboom…

big charge, 2014
© antony gormley | photograph © white cube (ben westoby)

passage, 2016
6 mm weathering steel | 79 1/2 x 28 7/16 x 471 5/8 in. (202 x 72.2 x 1198 cm)
© antony gormley | photograph © white cube (ben westoby)