Antony Gormley's Royal Academy of Arts Takeover
Antony Gormley has taken over the Royal Academy of Arts in London - flooding one gallery and cramming metal sculptures into others. In this retrospective of the sculptor's work, the main galleries of the RA have gone full-Gormley, with works inhabiting entire rooms.
 |
| Lost Horizon |
Gormley's sculptures are known all over the world - such as the Angel of the North, the Event Horizon and my personal favourite, Another Place situated on Formby Beach in Liverpool.
Gormley uses organic and industrial material, from clay to steel. He is renowned for his use of the body, often based on his own, to deconstruct and re-shape the human form.
 |
| Apple |
 |
| Mother's Pride V |
The exhibition features new works created specifically for the RA galleries and also rarely seen pieces from the 1970s and 1980s, such as Apple. In some of these early experiments you can see early uses of his own body within the artwork, like the odd bread silhouette seen above.
Some newer installations include Clearing VII (below), made from 8km of aluminium tube allowed to uncoil until inhibited by the walls, ceiling and floor. After navigating the endless coils of Clearing is a solitary statue; an almost pixelated form in a room on its own (Subject II).
 |
| Clearing VII |
 |
| Subject II |
Most impressive is the labyrinthine Matrix III, made of suspended steel mesh. It floats like a dense cloud in the middle of the gallery, playing with your sense of scale and weight.
One gallery displays pages and pages of Gormley's sketches. In the next gallery where you'll find Lost Horizon, you may think you have overdosed on Gormley! Defying gravity, the floor, walls and ceiling all project that most iconic of Gormley cast iron statues, as seen from Horizon Event and Another Place.
 |
| Matrix |
The penultimate room features an interactive piece. Appropriately named Cave, you feel your way through pitch black tunnels of the boxy, angular sculpture, searching for the scraps of light seeping through the cracks. There is of course an option to avoid these tunnels if you don't particularly fancy clawing your way around a series of dark tunnels!
After emerging through the final vent of Cave you immerge into a room filled with the fresh smell of brine. The source of the salty scent is from Host, an installation of clay and sea water that fills the whole of one of the galleries (how did they achieve this feat?!).
 |
| Cave |
 |
| Host |
The earthy work of Host, along with all the other raw sculptures of Gormley, sit in stark contrast to the opulent 19th Century gallery of the RA. The scales of the pieces are impressive and will leave most visitors suspended in disbelief. For me, the sculptures collectively allude to a sense of gravitation, or lack thereof. From those early works with apples that incite Isaac Newton, to Matrix and Lost Horizon, where all sense of gravity is lost.
Link below: