Another Place is a piece of modern sculpture by Sir Antony Gormley located at Crosby Beach in Liverpool City Region, England. It consists of 100 cast iron figures facing towards the sea. The figures are modelled on the artist's own naked body. The work proved controversial due to the "offensive" nature of the naked statues but has increased tourism to the beach. After being exhibited at two other locations in Europe a meeting by Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council on 7 March 2007 decided that the sculptures should be permanently installed at the beach.
Video Another Place (sculpture)
Construction and history
The work consists of cast iron figures which face out to sea, spread over a 2-mile (3.2 km) stretch of the beach between Waterloo and Blundellsands. Each figure is 189 cm tall (nearly 6 feet 2½ inches) and weighs around 650 kg (over 1400 lb). In common with most of Gormley's work, the figures are cast replicas of his own body. As the tides ebb and flow, the figures are, respectively, revealed and submerged by the sea.
The figures were cast at two foundries: Hargreaves Foundry in Halifax, West Yorkshire and the Joseph and Jesse Siddons Foundry in West Bromwich by foundryman Derek Alexander.
Another Place was first exhibited on the beach of Cuxhaven, Germany, in 1997 followed by Stavanger in Norway and De Panne in Belgium.
Maps Another Place (sculpture)
Public reception
Another Place was the subject of much controversy in Merseyside, despite many people considering the figures to be beautiful pieces of art, which have generated increased revenue from tourism in the local area.
Originally, the statues were due to be relocated in November 2007. Those who use the beach for watersports were among the most vocal in their resistance to the figures remaining, citing safety concerns. The coastguard also expressed safety concerns, fearing that tourists could become stuck in soft sand and get cut off by the tide. Conservationists, meanwhile, complained that bird-feeding areas had been compromised by the increased tourist traffic. Art lovers and local businesses, on the other hand, lobbied for the statues to stay. Gormley himself supported the proposal to keep the statues at Crosby Beach, saying the location was "ideal".
In October 2006, the local council refused to give permission for the statues to stay, prompting Gormley to criticise what he called Britain's "risk-averse culture." He stated, "When I have been down on the beach myself, the majority of people have been intrigued, amused, sometimes very moved."
The company Another Place Ltd was established to campaign for the figures' permanent installation and appealed the council's decision.
In March 2007, permission was granted for Another Place to remain at Crosby Beach permanently. The approved plan provided for 16 statues to be moved from contentious areas and decreased the installation's area from 232 to 195 hectares. The full cost of such work was estimated at £194,000, to be paid by Another Place Ltd with funding from sources including The Northern Way and Northwest Development Agency.
In a press release, the Chief Executive of Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council, Graham Haywood, said, "Despite some controversy, this internationally renowned artwork has aroused national and international public and media support ... The Iron Men have placed Crosby and Sefton firmly in the spotlight and the knock-on benefits of this should be felt for years to come."
In 2012, biologists from the University of Liverpool studied the colonisation of the statues by sessile intertidal organisms, such as invasive species of barnacles.
Similar works
Gormley has produced other works using similar life-sized iron statues.
Time Horizon
A second set of the same 100 figures were cast in 2006 for a new installation called Time Horizon. These were installed amongst a grove of olive trees at the Archaeological Park of Scolacium near Catanzaro in Calabria, Italy. The figures are set into the ground and face in a variety of directions, creating an effect very different from that of Another Place.
Event Horizon
Event Horizon consists of 31 statues placed on buildings around London.
Horizon Field
Horizon Field comprises 100 statues placed across 150 square kilometres in the Austrian Alps.
Images
References
External links
- One of the first photographs on Gormley's Flash-only web site shows Another Place in Cuxhaven, and it is also included as item 350 in his List of Works.
- Guardian article on Another Place and Gormley
- Liverpool Echo report on plans to retain Another Place at Crosby
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments