Artists - Part 38

 Antony Gormley

Sir Antony Gormley, born in 1950, is a British sculptor.  That's him standing behind one of his sculptures in a street installation in New York City.

Much of his work consists of life-size nude sculptures prepared from anatomically correct castings of his own body.  This one is called Reflection, 2008.

These 1998 sculptures, called Insiders, have more exaggerated shapes, but he hasn't forgotten one prominent anatomical feature.

In 2009, Gormley came up with a long-running performance art project in London's Trafalgar Square.  One of the plinths there (a stone base for a statue) has no statue on top.  Gormley's idea was to have the plinth occupied for 100 days, 24 hours a day, by members of the public who would each do whatever they wanted to do on top of the plinth for one hour.  He called the project One & Other. 100 days times 24 hours means that 2400 people would participate.  The participants were chosen by lottery.  Some just stood or sat on top of the plinth.  Others were more creative.  The short video clip above, taken from a longer video, gives an idea of what some of them did atop the plinth.

A few of the 2400 participants got naked on the plinth, which probably gladdened Gormley's heart, since he is so fond of nude statues.  This guy took a bath on top of the plinth.

This guy, named Sean R., just stood there, naked, for an hour.

As did this guy.

And this guy.

And this guy, who seems to be urging us to do something.

We end with a guy named Gunter, who put on quite a performance that involved getting into a tent, emerging from it with two blow-up dolls, and finally jumping off the plinth and streaking naked across Trafalgar Square pursued by the police.  But officers, it's art.