Antony Gormley

APERTURE, 2009 - 2012

My work has always explored the body as a place rather than as an object. The APERTURE works evolve into a new kind of structural complexity, while at the same time evoking the body as an open space of possibility connected with the earth but also to space at large.

The Scottish enlightenment scientist Lord Kelvin once asked how space could be most efficiently bounded by an enclosing geometry. The answer was found in those most elusive and fugitive of things: bubbles and foams, which form an intriguing geometry of tetrahedral nodes with elements combining at angles slightly less than 120 degrees. In recent years I have been experimenting with cell aggregates of nesting polyhedra in both solid and space-frame forms. The aim is to turn the space of the body into an open framework of tetrahedral, cubic, dodecahedral and more complex polygons. There was a breakthrough when I released these matrices from a bounding skin.

The outer edges of the APERTURE pieces seemingly grasp the air and indicate, in the metaphorical sense, the moment in which a body opens itself to the space around it.

Download text
APERTURE

APERTURE, 2009
6 mm square section mild steel bar
188 x 51 x 34 cm
Photograph by Stephen White, London

APERTURE II

APERTURE II, 2009
6 mm square section mild steel bar
188 x 52 x 34 cm
Photograph by Todd White Photography, London

APERTURE IV

APERTURE IV, 2009
6 mm square section mild steel bar
188 x 49 x 22 cm
Photograph by Todd White Photography, London

APERTURE III

APERTURE III, 2009
6 mm square section mild steel bar
189 x 48 x 23 cm
Photograph by Todd White Art Photography, London

RUPTURE, 2009

RUPTURE, 2009
4 mm square section mild steel bar
189 x 52 x 35 cm
Photograph by Stephen White, London

APERTURE V

APERTURE V, 2009
6 mm square section mild steel bar
190 x 52 x 32 cm
Photograph by Stephen White, London

APERTURE VII

APERTURE VII, 2010
6 mm square section mild steel bar
190 x 50 x 36 cm
Photograph by Stephen White, London

APERTURE VIII

APERTURE VIII, 2010
6 mm square section mild steel bar
190 x 53 x 31 cm
Photograph by Stephen White, London

APERTURE IX

APERTURE IX, 2010
10 mm square section mild steel bar
178 x 51 x 44 cm
Photograph by Stephen White, London

APERTURE X

APERTURE X, 2010
3 mm square section mild steel bar
189 x 53.5 x 29 cm
Photograph by Stephen White, London

APERTURE XI

APERTURE XI, 2010
10 mm square section mild steel bar
178 x 51 x 45 cm
Photograph by Stephen White, London

RUPTURE II, 2010

RUPTURE II, 2010
4 mm square section mild steel bar
189 x 52 x 34 cm
Photograph by Stephen White, London

APERTURE XVII

APERTURE XVII, 2011
10 mm square section mild steel bar
178 x 53 x 43 cm
Photograph by Stephen White, London

APERTURE XVIII

APERTURE XVIII, 2011
10mm square section mild steel bar , 178 x 53 x 43 cm
Photograph by Stephen White, London

APERTURE XX, 2012

APERTURE XX, 2012
12.5mm square section stainless steel bar
175 x 52 x 52 cm
Photograph by Stephen White, London