Green Ted
We called into Ketle's Yard for their Gormley exhibition on the way to Ely. This was another clear TOfT (told off for ted) event as the mostly friendly assistant stated clearly that GT must not come into contact with the pieces. By then the job had been done, so I was happy to comply. What damage a soft toy can do to a cast iron sculpture is moot.
Kettles is a great place: the show is free and on weekends there is inexpensive parking just up the hill. There were, theoretically at least, five works on show: two proper sculptures, one wire figure, one cross consisting of two cables at right angles and one light show (Infinite Cube II, not shown). There was also a display of notebooks.
Subject: Antony Gormley
Antony Gormley
Kettle's Yard
10th June 2018, 11:51
iPhone 7+, 4mm (28mm)
1/850 sec; f/1.8; ISO 20
Cat. 3,910
Quote from the gallery's web site
Devised for the new galleries and spaces at Kettle’s Yard, ‘SUBJECT’ highlights many of Antony Gormley’s interests, including how sculpture can activate both the space that it occupies and the body of the viewer. The exhibition offers a series of physical and metaphysical encounters, exploring our relationship to space and our sense of self.
‘SUBJECT’ will encompass both galleries, the Learning Studio and the Research Space. The exhibition includes the first in a new series of works, Subject (2018), from which the title of the show derives, and the first UK showing of Infinite Cube II (2018), made of one-way mirror glass and 1,000 LED lights.
Throughout the exhibition, there will be screenings of the BBC Imagine documentary, ‘Antony Gormley: Being Human’. Screenings will take place Thursday – Sunday only at 11.10am, 12.20pm, 1.30pm, 2.40pm and 3.50pm.
One of the works, Slip, is hanging in our Clore Learning Studio. The best place to view Slip is from outside the building through the windows on Castle Street. When possible, the Clore Learning Studio will be open to visitors 11am – 5pm, Tuesday – Sunday.
This is a working studio where we carry out public and private learning events and workshops. During private events the Learning Studio will be closed to the public and due to the nature of some of these events, the blinds may be closed. Most of Slip will not be available to view during these short, temporary periods. Please call ahead or email to ask about accessing Slip on the day of your visit.
The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication. kettlesyard.co.uk
Edge III, 2012
Edge III, Antony Gormley
Kettle's Yard
10th June 2018, 11:23
Fuji X-M1, 16-50mm @ 16mm (24mm)
1/60 sec; ISO 800
Cat. 3,900-02
Quote from the FT,
That Gormley is travelling an increasingly mystical road is declared more overtly by the occupant of the other main space, Gallery 2. Here we find “Edge III” (2012), another life-size sculpture of a male in cast iron. Coming in at 630kg, with its gritty carapace evoking decades of bleak, industrial back story, the figure exudes heaviness from every rusty, neglected pore. Yet it appears to levitate. Attached only by the soles of its feet to the wall, it juts horizontally into the empty space several inches above the floor.
The text tells us that “Edge” undermines “our assurance about the stability of the world”. But many visitors will find its gravity-defying powers reassuring. If this Leviathan can float, surely there’s hope for us all. ft.com
Subject, 2018
Subject, Antony Gormley
Kettle's Yard
10th June 2018, 11:23
Fuji X-M1, 16-50mm @ 20mm (30mm)
1/60 sec; f/4.5; ISO 800
Cat. 3,920-22
Quote from the Kettle's Yard notes
A single life-size standong sculpture in the Sackler Gallery uses a grid of [10mm mild steel] bars (composed of xyz co-ordinates) to create an internal map of a human body. Unlike the 3 steel bars in Co-ordinate [below] that do not ever touch, here, the work is constructed as if a magnetic coming together of random lines passed through the body, woven together but with no apparent structural binding. Both solid and precise and open and porous, the position of the body capures a fleeting moment of self-awareness, gazing at the ground. Kettle's Yard
Co-ordinate IV, 2018
Co-ordinate IV, Antony Gormley
Kettle's Yard
10th June 2018, 11:33
Fuji X-M1, 16-50mm @ 20mm (30mm)
1/125 sec; f/3.8; ISO 800
Cat. 3,930
There's not much to see with Co-ordinate IV, two metal cables, I thought when I was there, actually three metal bars, having read the description. Subject (see above) is in the distance. Quote from the gallery handout.
Two taut lines made from thin square steel bar shoot horizontally through the galleries at exactly 90 degrees to one another. The steel lines breech the gallery entrances and intersect above head hight, crossing the space without touchng each other. A third steel line cuts vertically through the Sackler Gallery from floor to ceiling. The three sculptural lines of Co-ordinate IV are like the highly tuned strings of a musical instrument. They disrupt and measure the gallery spaces. These vectors appear to intersect when seen from certain angles and break apart from others. The taut strings articulate the continuity and fracture of the rooms, their kight and volume, and imply the continuity of space beyond the walls. Kettle's Yard
Slip I, 2007
Slip I, Antony Gormley
Kettle's Yard
10th June 2018, 11:29
Fuji X-M1, 16-50mm @ 20mm (30mm)
1/60 sec; f/3.8; ISO 800
Cat. 3,940
This is difficult to photograph because the piece is in bright sunlight from the window and GT is in deep shadow. The HDR combination has not been a success technically, but the image is fun. The quote, from the Kettle's Yard notes, quotes the artist directly.
The work maps both the edge or bounding condition of a falling body and an expanded zone about 25mm out from the skin and places them one inside the other. These two net structures suggest a transfusion of space, internal and external to the body, which is suspended in both space and time. Antony Gormley
Notebooks
Notebooks, Antony Gormley
Kettle's Yard
10th June 2018, 11:42
iPhone 7+, 4mm (28mm)
1/15 sec; f/1.8; ISO 40
Cat. 3,950-57
A fascinating selection of notebook entries were on show, several relating directly to the pieces