When we think about viewing artwork, we might automatically imagine ourselves viewing paintings or photography as we tour a gallery in London or another urban centre, perhaps browsing in the shop afterwards for a few prints to frame for our homes.
However, art takes many different forms, and the summer can be a great opportunity to visit some outdoor installations. If you want to combine some fresh air and exercise with cultural inspiration this summer, then the new Anthony Gormely installation at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, makes for a very enjoyable experience.
Here’s an overview of the artist and his latest works.
Who is Anthony Gormley?
Anthony Gormley is one of Britain’s best known practising sculptors, with high profile works such as Angel of the North in Gateshead. He was born in 1950 and studied at Slade School of Fine Art in London.
He has produced many high-profile works, including Another Place on Crosby Beach near Liverpool and the Iron Man in Birmingham, and has completed a series of international commissions.
What is Gormley’s latest work all about?
His new exhibition, Time Horizon, features 100 life-size cast iron male figures sunk into the landscape across 300 acres of Houghton Hall in Norfolk. The depth varies to keep the figures in line with the datum level across the grounds, so that some are buried almost completely, some to their chest and a few are standing on the surface.
About a quarter of the figures are raised above the surface on concrete columns of varying heights, creating a single level horizon across the landscape. The significant variation in the height of the figures challenges the idea that Norfolk is flat, and demonstrates the synergy of art with its environment.
Gormley said of the new installation: ‘My ambition for this show is that people should roam far and wide. Art has recently privileged the object rather than the experience that objects can initiate. Time Horizon is not a picture, it is a field and you are in it.”
He added: “The work puts the experience of the subject/visitor/protagonist on an equal footing with all material presences, organic and inorganic.”
“The quality of the light, the time of the year, the state of the weather and the condition of your mind, body and soul are all implicated in the field, as is all the evidence within it of human activity already accomplished as well as the plethora of life forms that surround the hall.’
What else is Gormley famous for?
Gormely is best known for The Angel of the North, which was installed in 1998 and is visited by 150,000 people a year. At 20 metres high and 54 metres wide, it has the wingspan of a jumbo jet and is one of the largest and most famous sculptures in the UK.
It is situated over a former colliery and overlooks the A1 and A167 roads and the East Coast Main Line, and this means that it is seen by over 30 million people every year as they pass by. It is made of weathering steel, which gives the sculpture a deliberately rusty appearance and it is engineered to withstand winds of over 100mph.
What is the Angel of the North all about?
When questioned about his inspiration for the sculpture, Gormley said:”People are always asking, why an angel? The only response I can give is that no-one has ever seen one and we need to keep imagining them.”
“The angel has three functions – firstly a historic one to remind us that below this site coal miners worked in the dark for two hundred years, secondly to grasp hold of the future, expressing our transition from the industrial to the information age, and lastly to be a focus for our hopes and fears – a sculpture is an evolving thing.”
He added: “The hilltop site is important and has the feeling of being a megalithic mound. When you think of the mining that was done underneath the site, there is a poetic resonance. Men worked beneath the surface in the dark. Now in the light, there is a celebration of this industry. The face will not have individual features.”
When can I see the new Time Horizon Installation?
Anthony Gormley: Time Horizon is open until October 31. Houghton Hall near King’s Lynn is open from 11am-5pm on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and on Saturdays throughout July and August.