Green Gormley

Gormley handLast October 2018, I relocated 250 miles South from Edinburgh to Crosby and so find myself with a sandy beach a 10-minute walk from my flat and Liverpool’s majestic city centre a short train ride away. My arrival here was just in time to catch the last weeks of the Biennial, which was an extraordinary introduction to the city’s arts venues.  Coming to a new place, it can be difficult to know how to begin to find what’s out there so the Biennial was akin to a crash-course, a master-class.  It’s almost embarrassing to admit that prior to my move here, I had never been to this part of England, but on the positive side that means I’m seeing everything with fresh eyes and loads of enthusiasm. The only thing I knew about Crosby was that it is the location of Antony Gormley’s installation “Another Place”.Gormley full figure  The 100 solid cast iron body-forms have been permanently located here since 2005, stretching several kilometres down the beach, all looking out to sea.  Originally all nearly identical – they are made from 17 body casts taken during a two-month period – each one has been transformed in a unique way by time and tide, with the green algae and barnacles playing a starring role.  Art that evolves in this way, that reflects transience, has been a long-held focus of my own art practice.  I’m interested in art that has a quality of impermanence, in which the passage of time is evident in the materials and Gormley’s installation exemplifies this.  One of my own examples is the ‘Prayer Flag’ I made and documented how the elements worked their magic on it.  (Images of this are in the Objects/Sculpture section of this website). The setting in which Gormley’s figures are located is of course also constantly changing – not just the ebb and flow of the tide but the light, the shifting sands, the huge container ships going in and out of Liverpool port, the ferries going to and from Ireland, all of these factors work visually on the sculptures so that, although secured on metre-deep concrete piles, their world is not static. And neither is their nakedness a constant – almost every day some have been dressed up so they are not exposed to the elements. Most recently their outfits were all to do with Christmas and prior to that quite a few of them were in yellow high-viz waistcoats, perhaps in support of the gilets jaunes movement, when it began in France.  Passing dogs also like to make their mark with the cock of a leg.  Well, Gormley did say he wanted the sculptures to engage with the daily life of the beach.