Hayward Gallery

Blind Light, Anthony Gormley - August 2007People love Antony Gormley. They laughed at him when they put up the angel of the North, but they soon forgot that when the great statue went up on the hill by the A1 just outside toon. The Geordies even went so far as to hang a Newcastle scarf round his neck. Then there was his work at Crosby beach Liverpool, a modern set of casts that was due to head to New York last year. Today, the sculpture still stands and will do for the next ten years at least.Recently Antony Gormley has won another accolade by breaking the Hayward Gallery???s record for the most number of visitors any of its shows has ever had. So what???s so good about him? His sculpture revolves primarily around creating casts of himself and putting them in various places. This should be the kind of thing that people who hate modern art scoff at. Indeed, the notorious art crtic Brian Sewell is the chief amongst this ring of sceptical rabble rousers describing Gormely as a shameless self promoter and cursing the amount of public funding that has gone into presenting his work. Next in line is Aidan Campbell who has thrown similar accusations stating that Gormley places health and safety concerns secondary to his pathological pursuit of money.Whatever you think about the man himself it???s quite easy to forget these dullards as you go through the door and understand why this show has been embraced by so many people. To your left is an enormous cube sculpture titled Space Station and to your right through a door is a field of square robotic figures called Allotment II arranged in grid like formation. It is clear that ideas of sameness and volume in the body are principle here. Looking at these and the various prints and featureless casts that dot the walls, one can???t help feeling that Gormley is re-visiting the same ideas of repetition that dominated so much of Warhol???s work during the 1960???s. The good side to this is that like Warhol, the obvious aesthetics please you but the negative side is that you sometimes feel you have missed some complex idea along the line. The guide doesn???t help these matters by being over-complicated and uninformative.Yet Gormley???s work can go far further then this and he regularly toys with ideas of space, disorientation and vulnerability. Blind Light may be filled with children???s laughter but it leaves you feeling confused, sweaty and ever so slightly blurred. Equally disconcerting is Event Horizon, which you have to step out onto the Hayward???s terraces to appreciate. 31 life-size sculptural casts of Gormley???s body have been erected upon rooftops and walkways in every direction across a 1.5 sq km area. As you take stock of London???s iconic skyline, you catch sight of impassive, imposing figures staring back at you. The effect is especially eerie and places you in the depths of an Orwellian nightmare. Gormley saves most of his abstract work for upstairs which include a sculpture made of toast and some astonsihingly beautiful hanging matrix sculptures which play withideas of birth and re-birth. It???s a total exhibition experience and leaves you feeling slightly overwhelmed.Despite this Gormley???s work is user-friendly and all embracing. Like the great father of conceptual art Joseph Beuys he is bringing art to a wider audience. Like him or not the viewing figures don???t lie and it???s difficult to wonder where he will go from here. Should he ever take up teaching he would probably be able to give new meaning to life-drawing classes and I for one would at least be second or third in line to go.

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