theEYE: Antony Gormley

theEYE: Antony Gormley

Synopsis

An internationally acclaimed artist, Antony Gormley is best known for his monumental sculpture Angel of the North. This earth-bound figure with its massive wings shares with all of Gormley's work a preoccupation both with the human form and with our shared spiritual potential. Antony Gormley's early lead and iron figures were cast from his own body. They demand a physical and emotional response, but they also raise profound philosophical questions about memory, the mind and our senses. Some of his sculptures, such as the tiny sleeping figure modelled on his infant daughter Still IV, are intensely private. Other works, like Field and Allotment II, are sweeping social and architectural explorations on a grand scale. Many of Antony Gormley's most significant works are illustrated in this film profile, including Bed, made from hundreds of loaves of sliced white bread, and the spectacular Quantum Cloud created alongside the Millennium Dome in London. Antony Gormley offers a reflective commentary on these and other works and on the central investigations and imperatives of his art.