Antony Gormley’s Imaginative Furniture for a Functional World

‘One of the things that sculpture can do is make a place. It adds imaginative furniture to an otherwise functional world,’ says British sculptor Antony Gormley.

STAND (2019), a public artwork comprised of cast-iron ‘blockwork’ sculptures, is Gormley’s latest work. The ten pieces have been installed at the top of the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s steps, overlooking the city below.

‘Philadelphia is extraordinary because of the way there’s this dialogue between the Museum of Fine Arts that occupies the highest possible space within the city. And at the other end is city hall,’ Gormley explains.

Asked whether the sculptures represent bodies, the sculptor replies: ‘the degree to which they are bodies I think is the degree to which there is something to recognize. And to that degree they are distinct from pure abstraction.’

Timothy Rub, Director and CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art describes how the sculptures relate architecturally to the setting.

‘I consider Gormley to be someone who’s very much attuned to this question of civic space and the way sculpture can animate that. So they have this wonderful kind of active presence which changes as you approach them and move beyond them.’

‘Antony Gormley: STAND’ is on view at Philadelphia Museum of Art until 16 June 2019.