Opening tomorrow in London is a new exhibition of work from sculptor Antony Gormley. A good portion of the installation has been under installation for a few weeks surrounding the Hayward Gallery in central London. 31 life-size figures stand atop structures near the gallery. Some are visible from the street, others can only be somewhat seen from sculpture terraces connected to the gallery.
The real work of interest is a new installation called ‘Blind Light’. The work is a 25 X 30 foot glass box filled with fog. Visitors can enter the space and experience it’s disorienting effects.
"On the one hand, you have lost all sense of location – left, right,
front, back," Gormley said. "You immediately are lost in space and that
makes you anxious. But at the same time, I think there is a sense of
euphoria that you are almost free of the body whilst being returned to
it in a new way."
Those already through the work mentioned a difficulty in breathing from the dense humid air in the chamber. And being rather scared to walk any further in from being able to still touch the perimeter glass walls. The exhibition references cities in contrast to some of Gormley’s other large installations which share a connection to nature. While people in cities like London live in closer quarters, Blind Light in a way forces people closer together.
"By the time you come across somebody, you are already well inside
their ordinary zone of intimacy," Gormley said. "People react to each
other in a different way in that environment."
The exhibition opens Thursday and runs until August 19.
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