ARTISTS
Antony Gormley: Aerial
White Cube is pleased to present 鈥楢ERIAL鈥�, an exhibition by Antony Gormley, in which the artist considers sculpture as an instrument for proprioception 鈥� the body鈥檚 innate capacity to sense and perceive its position, movements and orientation in relation to itself and the environment. The exhibition features two recent developments in Gormley鈥檚 practice: one explores physical proximity in mass and scale, where two over-life-size bodies merge as one, while the other endeavours to catalyse space almost without mass.
Aerial (2023), the work from which the show takes its title, manifests an orthogonal matrix that both measures and activates the architecture of the ground floor gallery in which it is contained. Built from a descending scale of solid aluminium bars that end in delicate elements referred to by the artist as 鈥榳hiskers鈥�, Aerial creates a zone of dispersed energy that interacts with light. The work鈥檚 branching system of vertical and horizontal bars speaks to Piet Mondrian鈥檚 鈥楶ier and Ocean鈥� series, in which elemental space and the dynamic between distance and proximity are evoked through lines articulated at right angles.
Aerial endeavours to be both a receiver and transmitter of energy, the viewer and artwork mutually activated by the observer鈥檚 trajectory through space and time. The work kindles an understanding of space not as an emptiness isolating one object from another, but rather as a place that exists within and through objects. 鈥榊ou could think of this work as the root hair of the made world鈥�, notes Gormley, 鈥榦r as the antenna of architecture, perhaps even the whiskers of the room that allow us to sense space and the room to sense us.鈥�
Upstairs, three solid cast iron 鈥楤ig Double Blockworks鈥� (all 2023) explore physical intimacy through a radically reduced geometric language. Departing from Gormley鈥檚 earlier explorations of doubled forms, which focused on the organic mitotic duplication of his own body, these works refer to the orthogonal geometry of architecture 鈥� what Gormley calls our 鈥榮econd body鈥� 鈥� and use its physical language, rather than pure line, to form mass. Gormley conceived these recent works during, and in response to, the Covid lockdowns 鈥� periods when the intimacies of shared living amplified a sense of 鈥榖eing with鈥�.
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White Cube is pleased to present 鈥楢ERIAL鈥�, an exhibition by Antony Gormley, in which the artist considers sculpture as an instrument for proprioception 鈥� the body鈥檚 innate capacity to sense and perceive its position, movements and orientation in relation to itself and the environment. The exhibition features two recent developments in Gormley鈥檚 practice: one explores physical proximity in mass and scale, where two over-life-size bodies merge as one, while the other endeavours to catalyse space almost without mass.
Aerial (2023), the work from which the show takes its title, manifests an orthogonal matrix that both measures and activates the architecture of the ground floor gallery in which it is contained. Built from a descending scale of solid aluminium bars that end in delicate elements referred to by the artist as 鈥榳hiskers鈥�, Aerial creates a zone of dispersed energy that interacts with light. The work鈥檚 branching system of vertical and horizontal bars speaks to Piet Mondrian鈥檚 鈥楶ier and Ocean鈥� series, in which elemental space and the dynamic between distance and proximity are evoked through lines articulated at right angles.
Aerial endeavours to be both a receiver and transmitter of energy, the viewer and artwork mutually activated by the observer鈥檚 trajectory through space and time. The work kindles an understanding of space not as an emptiness isolating one object from another, but rather as a place that exists within and through objects. 鈥榊ou could think of this work as the root hair of the made world鈥�, notes Gormley, 鈥榦r as the antenna of architecture, perhaps even the whiskers of the room that allow us to sense space and the room to sense us.鈥�
Upstairs, three solid cast iron 鈥楤ig Double Blockworks鈥� (all 2023) explore physical intimacy through a radically reduced geometric language. Departing from Gormley鈥檚 earlier explorations of doubled forms, which focused on the organic mitotic duplication of his own body, these works refer to the orthogonal geometry of architecture 鈥� what Gormley calls our 鈥榮econd body鈥� 鈥� and use its physical language, rather than pure line, to form mass. Gormley conceived these recent works during, and in response to, the Covid lockdowns 鈥� periods when the intimacies of shared living amplified a sense of 鈥榖eing with鈥�.
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On view in New York City until June 15.
White Cube presents 鈥楢ERIAL鈥�, an exhibition by Antony Gormley, in which the artist considers sculpture as an instrument for proprioception 鈥� the body鈥檚 innate capacity to sense and perceive its position, movements and orientation in relation to itself and the environment.
Wallpaper* meets Antony Gormley as his new exhibition, 鈥楢erial鈥� opens at White Cube New York
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