4 posts tagged “blind light”

I loved Gormley's Blind Light exhibition when there were about 30 of these statues, cast from the artist own body, dotted around on roof tops and ledges within a mile or two of the exhibition and all facing the Hayward Gallery. Really glad I found these which are at office building on the Euston Road.

Room in Athen's hotel had a frosted bathroom door* so I just couldn't resist...

*Note to hotel designers: Frosted glass in the bathroom door is quirky for about first five minutes you are in the room. The frosting only mildly distorts the person behind it and you don't really need to see someone scratching their arse or doing whatever it is that people generally like to do behind the privacy of the bathroom door. Secondly when you put the bathroom light on to go for a piss in the middle of the night you might as well have just switched all the room lights on, which is great for your room mate who was fast asleep.

My knowledge of art isn't great so I approach it from the point of view:  does it provoke a response from me, do I like it or do I appreciate it?.
Antony Gormley's Blind Light at the Hayward Gallery is a yes, yes and yes. Why? Because it is imaginative, clever and I could appreciate the work, the thought and craft that had gone into it. And it certainly provoked a response.

The title piece Blind Light is a perspex box filled with dense fog. You only have to go inside a few feet to lose sight of everything around you and all perspective. Sound is muffled and the density of the air feels slightly suffocating. It is extremely disorientating and had the same physical effect as heights have on me. I only stayed in for a minute both times and didn't stray far from the entrance as the fear of not finding my way out was too strong. If I'd gone in with someone I may have been a bit braver.
Gormley takes the body as the central theme and has taken many casts of his own body. Indeed he must have spent a rather strange amount of time covered in cling film...
One room exhibits a piece called Allotment II which is a series of 300 concrete boxes each modeled on a the same group of measurements taken from 300 volunteers of all ages. There is a box for the body which has a hole for the genitals and another for the anus and a smaller box for the head with a hole for the mouth and two holes for the ears.
There were a lot of kids at the exhibition. I'm not sure what they take from it but I saw two boys running around Allotment II trying to find the concrete boxes that best matched their size, getting right up close to make sure all the holes matched.
Then there was Mother's Pride. Quite literally a wall of slices of Mother's Pride bread  with the shape of a human, laying in an almost foetal position, 'bitten' out of the middle.
There are lots of pictures and details about his work at his excellent website

Several voxers have already posted about the work of artist Antony Gormley including AKA Vasquez so I apologise for arriving unfashionably late at the party.
These sculptures are decorating the roof tops and pavements around the South Bank as part of his Blind Light exhibition. Supposedly based on his own body, they have become such a feature of my journey to work that I have grown quite fond of them.
Some observers are obviously more moved than others by this art, choosing to respond in their own unique way. For example, it is not unusual to see parts of the sculpture, and you don't need to guess which parts, spray painted or words such as 'cock' written across the torso. Then there is the dressing up and the condom tied on with ribbon. None lasts more than a day leaving the sculptures a 'blank canvas' once again.
I wonder what Gormley's reaction would be?
The exhibition is only on for another couple of weeks and it will be a sad day when the sculptures are taken down. Perhaps I should start a campaign similar to the one initiated at Crosby Sands.