ANTONY GORMLEY (B. 1950)
ANTONY GORMLEY (B. 1950)

Small Shuck V

Details
ANTONY GORMLEY (B. 1950)
Small Shuck V
stamped with studio reference number (underside)
cast iron sculpture
97 (H) x 22 x 28 cm. (38 ¼ x 8 5/8 x 11 in.)
Executed in 2015
Provenance
Galleria Continua
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Brought to you by

Jacky Ho (何善衡)
Jacky Ho (何善衡)

Lot Essay

The ‘Small Blockworks’ are models for the 1.5 life-size‘Blockworks’ which attempt to give a strong intimation of thefeel of a body using the smallest number of compressed ironblocks. These either sit one on top of the other or side-by-side,whether the figure is standing or crouching. The vertical workscounter the stability of a column by cantilever. They attemptto equate instability of build with a mental state, translatinghaptic bodily sensation into ever more parlous tectonics.

Both the ‘Blockworks’ and ‘Small Blockworks’ use scale to act on the body-consciousness of the viewer. All of the works have an extended foot – the size of the foot is incorporated with the other blocks of the work to integrate a base into the language of the work.

Gormley states “..blockworks describe the space of thebody in stacked masses that question its stability. I use theconstruction language of the built world; pillars and lintels, toevoke the inner condition of the body, treating the body less asa thing than a place. There is a tension between a suggestedsymmetry and the actual articulation of a body, so that veryslight variations in the alignment of the blocks can be readempathetically as an indication of the total body feeling. Thesepieces attempt to treat the body as a condition; being, notdoing.”


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