Antony Gormley

FIT, WHITE CUBE BERMONDSEY, LONDON, ENGLAND, 2016

30 September - 06 November 2016

For this exhibition, Antony Gormley has configured the gallery space into fifteen chambers to create a series of dramatic physiological encounters in the form of a labyrinth. Visitors will be faced with a choice of passage through differently sized, uniquely lit spaces where each room challenges or qualifies the experience of the last.

Framed as the sequel to the exhibition MODEL, shown in 2012 at White Cube Bermondsey, the exhibition considers the relation of the individual to the built environment, the 'making of places' and resulting displacement. FIT makes reference to both the citizens of a city like London and the migrant seeking refuge, asking whether we, as citizens, identify with the forces that determine inclusion or exclusion from city or country.

The artist's concerns are most clearly articulated in the expansive installation SLEEPING FIELD (2015 - 2016). Composed of nearly 600 small iron sculptures, the work at first looks like a carpet of charcoal grey blocks or like a condensed landscape of high and low-rise buildings. Upon closer inspection, the forms resolve into hundreds of individual bodies - displaced, redundant, at rest, yet evoking states from lassitude to despair.

The notion of scale, in particular the scale of a human body in relation to architectural space, is explored in works like RUN (2016): a singular, continuous cast iron line which indicates the space of one room in snaking, 90 degree turns. In describing this work, which relate to the exact measurements of his own body, Gormley states, 'it is inviting one to pause and consider our dependency on the 'second' body, the body of architecture.'

In contrast to the dispersed mass of SLEEPING FIELD, BLOCK (2016), an immense 15 tonne concrete sculpture, describes an abstract, contemplative body in an attitude of withdrawal and reflection, whilst two other sculptures, formed from industrially-cut steel plate slabs, playfully represent the form of the classical nude and the tottering stacks of blocks a child might make.

In PASSAGE (2016), Gormley creates a 12 metre-long tunnel, whose shape is modelled on a standing human form, suggesting a correlative for the interior of the body and offering a journey into darkness and the unknown.

Gormley's approach to exhibition-making is a test ground for perception, focusing on the mapping of our subjective experience and the potential of the viewers' projected empathy. As Gormley explains further, it is his challenge 'to make a show that allows forms and materials to work on us, releasing us from any expectations of what sculpture is and how it might act on us.'

FIT, 2016

FIT, 2016
5 mm square section stainless steel bar
267 x 122 x 104 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

FIT, 2016 (foreground)

FIT, 2016 (FOREGROUND)
5 mm square section stainless steel bar
267 x 122 x 104 cm
MEAN, 2016 (background)
8 mm mild steel bar
192 x 49.6 x 32.3 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

MEAN, 2016

MEAN, 2016
8 mm mild steel bar
192 x 49.6 x 32.3 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

RUN, 2016

RUN, 2016
Cast iron
277.5 x 318.6 x 421.8 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

RUN, 2016

RUN, 2016
Cast iron
277.5 x 318.6 x 421.8 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

RUN, 2016 (foreground)

RUN, 2016 (FOREGROUND)
Cast iron
277.5 x 318.6 x 421.8 cm
MEAN, 2016 (background)
8 mm mild steel bar
192 x 49.6 x 32.3 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

POSE, 2016 (foreground)

POSE, 2016 (FOREGROUND)
140 mm Corten steel slab
128.7 x 156.5 x 224 cm
LOOK, 2016 (background)
140 mm Corten steel slab
380.6 x 90.3 x 65.9 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

POSE, 2016

POSE, 2016
140 mm Corten steel slab
128.7 x 156.5 x 224 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

LOOK, 2016

LOOK, 2016
140 mm Corten steel slab
380.6 x 90.3 x 65.9 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

LOOK, 2016 (foreground)

LOOK, 2016 (FOREGROUND)
140 mm Corten steel slab
380.6 x 90.3 x 65.9 cm
POSE, 2016 (background)
140 mm Corten steel slab
128.7 x 156.5 x 224 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

BLOCK, 2016

BLOCK, 2016
Concrete
405.8 x 403.7 x 327.8 cm
13 tonne
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

BLOCK, 2016

BLOCK, 2016
Concrete
405.8 x 403.7 x 327.8 cm
13 tonne
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

BLOCK, 2016

BLOCK, 2016
Concrete
405.8 x 403.7 x 327.8 cm
13 tonne
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

SMALL STOP LEAD III, 2015

SMALL STOP LEAD III, 2015
Lead
22 x 22.8 x 40.4 cm
SMALL STOP (LEAD) II, 2015
Lead
24 x 23.5 x 42.5 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

FIT, 2016

FIT, 2016
Lead
Dimensions variable
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

BOND, 2015 (foreground)

BOND, 2015 (FOREGROUND)
Cast Iron
72 x 246 x 69 cm
FOLD II, 2015 (background)
Cast iron
254 x 59 x 81 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

BOND, 2015

BOND, 2015
Cast iron
72 x 246 x 69 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

FOLD II, 2015

FOLD II, 2015
Cast iron
254 x 59 x 81 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

BIG CHARGE, 2014

BIG CHARGE, 2014
Mild steel bar
279 x 63 x 72 cm
BIG SHY, 2016
Mild steel bar
279 x 63 x 84 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

BIG CHARGE, 2014

BIG CHARGE, 2014
Mild steel bar
279 x 63 x 72 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

BIG CHARGE, 2014; BIG SHY, 2016; PASSAGE, 2016

BIG CHARGE, 2014; BIG SHY, 2016; PASSAGE, 2016
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

SLEEPING FIELD, 2015-16

SLEEPING FIELD, 2015-16
Cast iron
517 elements; dimensions variable
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

SLEEPING FIELD, 2015-16

SLEEPING FIELD, 2015-16
Cast iron
517 elements; dimensions variable
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

SLEEPING FIELD, 2015-16

SLEEPING FIELD, 2015-16
Cast iron
517 elements; dimensions variable
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

HOLD, 2016

HOLD, 2016
6 mm weathering steel
295 x 274 x 278 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

HOLD, 2016

HOLD, 2016
6 mm weathering steel
295 x 274 x 278 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

ROOM V, 1990

ROOM V, 1990
Concrete
90.5 x 58 x 71 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

ROOM V, 1990

ROOM V, 1990
Concrete
90.5 x 58 x 71 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

OVER THE EARTH, 1987-89

OVER THE EARTH, 1987-89
Lead, plaster, fibreglass and air
38 x 208 x 190 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

OVER THE EARTH, 1987-89

OVER THE EARTH, 1987-89
Lead, plaster, fibreglass and air
38 x 208 x 190 cm
PASSAGE, 2016
6 mm weathering steel
202 x 72.2 x 1198 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

PASSAGE, 2016

PASSAGE, 2016
6 mm weathering steel
202 x 72.2 x 1198 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

PASSAGE, 2016

PASSAGE, 2016
6 mm weathering steel
202 x 72.2 x 1198 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

PASSAGE, 2016

PASSAGE, 2016
6 mm weathering steel
202 x 72.2 x 1198 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

FIT, 2016

FIT, 2016
Cast iron
Dimensions variable
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

SET, 2016

SET, 2016
10 mm mild steel bar
192.3 x 50.3 x 30.7 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

BIG STOP, 2015

BIG STOP, 2015
Cast iron
80 x 120 x 69 cm
BIG STOP IV, 2014
Cast iron
73 x 11.5 x 68 cm
Installation view, White Cube, London, UK
Photo: White Cube (Ben Westoby)

FIT, WHITE CUBE BERMONDSEY, 2016
7mins14 Film by Jon Lowe

LinkWhite Cube LinkIn conversation with Andrea Schlieker LinkPress Release and Works