![\"MASAG-079\"](\"http:\/\/arts.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-content\/uploads\/0425_drawn_2000_001_ref.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nHorizon Field Hamburg<\/i> and One and Other <\/i>reinforce audience interaction as the door to Gormley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153open space of art\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, operating as two different approaches to the relationship between individual and collective responses. Horizon Field Hamburg <\/i>explores the lack of control a single person can have in public spaces with a large, black-mirror platform suspended thirty feet in the air by six metal cables. The platform is capable of swinging six feet in any direction, which is constantly influenced by viewers moving around on the glossy painted surface. Conversely, One and Other<\/i> highlights the power of the individual, by quite literally placing its singular form on a pedestal. Volunteers signed a schedule securing their one-hour on the plinth, which also stood at thirty feet tall. Coincidence? I think not. These brave \u00e2\u20ac\u0153living sculptures\u00e2\u20ac\u009d were given complete creative control, and the perfect stage to make a statement of their choosing. The crowd that gathered at the base of the plinth was subject to whatever the person decided to show them, whether it was an act of humor or sincere emotion.<\/p>\n
Installations<\/i> like Breathing Room<\/i>, Blind Light, <\/i>and Model<\/i> directly challenge the viewers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 perceptions of space and self by initiating a more intimate conversation with the senses. By constructing architectural forms intended to be occupied, the form of these sculptures is both vital and secondary at the same time, emphasizing the fact that art doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t \u00e2\u20ac\u0153happen\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in objects or images themselves, but in the creative spaces of the mind. The sculptural objects \u00e2\u20ac\u201c or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153systems\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in Gormley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are only there to lead the viewer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wandering thoughts in the right direction.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The importance of these works is in the way they highlight the transformation of an art object into an art experience, defined by the appropriation of the power inherent to public sculpture. Gormley is able to transcend the traditional techniques of expression through the figure, exploring its place in an age of mechanization. His work embodies the transition from an object that relies on the coherent story of representation, and towards \u00e2\u20ac\u0153objects\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that are spaces to be explored creatively and critically.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n To me, Antoni Gormley is one of those artists whose work you discover and experience the excitement of finding a new major influence, with an undertone of jealousy for having made such incredible objects (or experiences). I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m currently in my \u00e2\u20ac\u0153making other people\u00e2\u20ac\u009d phase of figure sculpture, and bumbling through the mess that is oil paint, so Gormley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s approach to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153recycling\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the traditional elements of art really struck a cord with me. We have to look back to move forward. We have to know our context in this strange creative space of culture that art occupies, in order to continue making relevant work. The way that Gormley simultaneously refers to and contradicts the traditional notions of space help to place him in conversation with his ancestry of sculptors, but also with everyone who is alive to experience his work in the present.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The entire hour of Antony Gormley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lecture is available here:<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n