Callum: Hello, I’m Callum Robertson and this is Entertainment.

The British sculptor Antony Gormley celebrates his 57th birthday this week.

He’s a prolific and popular modern sculptor. One of his most well known

pieces is the huge Angel of the North, an enormous statue which stands on a

hill to the side of one of Britain’s busiest roads in the North of England.

A feature of Gormley’s work is to make us look at the everyday world in a

different way and that is something that I experienced with a recent work of his,

Event Horizon.

 

Every day I cycle to work through the streets of London. My journey takes me

over Waterloo Bridge from where there are great views along the River

Thames. Most days I don’t see these views as usually I have my head down,

fighting the wind as I try and pedal up and over the bridge.

But some days I do stop and think how lucky I am. For many people it is an

ambition to come to London, to see these sights that I can see everyday. So

sometimes I do stop and take a look at the riverside skyline, to admire the view.

A few weeks ago I noticed something a little different. I couldn’t quite make it

out but it looked like there was a person standing on top of one of the buildings

that looks over Waterloo Bridge.

In the next few days I noticed more of these ‘people’ standing on top of

buildings on both the north and the south banks of the river. Of course by this

time I had realised that they weren’t real people but they were statues, identical 

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statues of a naked human figure which seemed to be popping up all over the

river bank.

In all there were 31 and it wasn’t long before I discovered that they were all

sculptures by Antony Gormley forming a piece of public art called Event

Horizon.

Antony Gormley talked to the BBC Radio Four arts programme Front Row.

How did he describe Event Horizon them and what effect does he want it to

have?

Antony Gormley

I think it is a sort of infection of the centre of town in order to get people to look at probably

bits of London that they don’t bother to look at. I mean we’re all so busy, aren’t we. We’re all

going somewhere; we’ve all got an idea about a destination.

Callum: He describes it as a sort of infection, which is like a rash, a series of spots that

appear on your skin. The purpose of this ‘infection’ is to get people to look at

bits of London they wouldn’t normally see. To make us stop and take a pause

from our busy lives. Listen again.

Antony Gormley

I think it is a sort of infection of the centre of town in order to get people to look at probably

bits of London that they don’t bother to look at. I mean we’re all so busy, aren’t we. We’re all

going somewhere; we’ve all got an idea about a destination.

Callum: Gormley’s Event Horizon makes us look up but Gormley himself got a

different perspective as he oversaw the positioning of the figures. He talks

about the topography of London, the topography – which means the shape of 

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the landscape. And he talks about this as he sees it from the ITV tower, one of

the buildings which has one of his statues on.

Antony Gormley

I’ve learned a lot about the topography of London putting these in. I mean it was fantastic

from the top of the ITV tower looking down and just seeing the texture of London and what

an extraordinary, in a way, mixture, of new and old, of the very very domestic and intimate

and tight with its little gardens and then these huge new buildings.

Callum: From the top of the building he was able to appreciate the mixture of styles and

architecture in central London. The old and new, homes with small gardens

next to huge new buildings. He goes on explain more about Event Horizon,

which he calls ‘the piece’ and what it means to London.

Antony Gormley

It’s an extraordinary city that seems to express in its architectural styles the same kind of

diversity that it has in its ethnic mix. And I want, I guess it is, a big question that the piece is

asking, who is included and who is excluded from, in a way, this built environment. I’m

treating London as if it were, in a way a natural landscape

Callum: London is a manmade environment that is diverse architecturally as well as

ethnically. He says his piece asks a question, or makes us think about who is

and isn’t included in this manmade environment.

Antony Gormley

It’s an extraordinary city that seems to express in its architectural styles the same kind of

diversity that it has in its ethnic mix. And I want, I guess it is, a big question that the piece is

asking, who is included and who is excluded from, in a way, this built environment. I’m

treating London as if it were, in a way a natural landscape with these exposed bodies that

would normally be, as it were, protected by these buildings. 

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Callum: Well I’m not entirely sure I understand exactly what he means, but that’s the

beauty of art, it can mean different things to different people. What I do know

is like his Angel of the North, Event Horizon made me stop and look at the

environment around me in a different way.