I visited the Royal Academy Gormley exhibition on the 18th. This man is so creative! I had seen his work before but the only one even semi duplicated here was that showing figures like those in Crosby but projecting from the walls ceiling and floor of the very grand Royal Academy galleries. Some of the pieces were from very early in his career, and others created apparently created specifically for the exhibition. Most appeared to be exploring the relationship between the human body and the space around it. As the catalogue put it 'the artist invites you to engage with the spaces around you'. The installation I thought least successful (Host) was a complete departure from this theme - a gallery turned into a shallow pond of mud and stagnant seawater. For me, the most interesting installations /sculptures were these: Made out of loose dried clay lumps these unnamed pieces were very evocative; provoking (in me, at least) feelings of protection and sympathy. They also demonstrated the sculptor's intimate knowledge of the human form. More interesting and enjoyable for me were two pieces about the spaces we inhabit Eighty kilometres of square cross section tubing was coiled up, taken into a gallery and allowed to uncoil, filling the space. ('Clearing V11') Visitors who wished to get to the gallery beyond had to pick their way through. Each one became a participant in the work and may have been more aware of their own bodies (will I get safely through that gap?) and the total space. “I’m trying to activate the space itself in such a way that the viewer’s body becomes activated,” says Gormley, quoted on the Royal Academy website
Like the coiled installation above, a large part of this welded piece's visual interest was the way the visuals changed according the to viewers position - their viewpoint. Again from the RA website: 'The magic happens in the moment of human attention. The "perceptual maze” of Matrix III is formed in the act of walking around, and if you wish, underneath.' “It is very difficult to distinguish between the foreground, mid-ground and background of the work, because there are all of these conflicting perspectives.” (Gormley 2019).
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AuthorI am indulging my passion for ceramics by undertaking studies for an MA at UCLAN Archives
August 2021
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