Antony Gormley
The National Gallery Singapore
August 6 2021- October 30 2022
Celebrated English sculptor Antony Gormley’s latest exhibition at the National Gallery of Singapore - the largest one in Southeast Asia to date - is meticulously curated to showcase works that are shocking, engaging and unnerving all at once.
Held from August 6 this year to October 30 next year, the exhibition once again draws attention to the Turner Prize-winning artist’s brilliant use of space and materials to create works that engage their surroundings and resonate with the audience.
His latest work, Horizon Field Singapore, is an outdoor installation that explores the use of space to reimagine our relationship with our environment. Complementing the installation are three of his earlier sculptures, all of which tie together flawlessly to bring out a recurring theme of his works - the human body’s relationship with space and how audiences can become part of the work.
As visitors navigate their way through the exhibition, they can immerse themselves in an adventure of spotting all four artworks, since they are all scattered around key locations of the gallery.
1. HORIZON FIELD SINGAPORE (2021)
An immersive experience at the Horizon Field Singapore exhibit, where the audience becomes part of the artwork. PHOTO: LU MEI WEI EMMY
Keep a lookout for your safety at this exhibit, though you are likely to receive a gentle reminder from the museum staff to ‘Be careful not to hit your head’.
Located on the fifth floor of the City Hall Wing as part of the Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Commission is the main highlight of the exhibition - Horizon Field Singapore.
Horizon Field Singapore is reminiscent of a playground, bringing out the childlike wonder in visitors as they playfully navigate through the vast matrix of giant aluminium rings.
By providing an immersive experience of being part of the work, Gormley effectively makes use of empty spaces to spark critical engagement with his audience, just as he did with previous works such as Clearing VIII (2019). Consisting several miles of coiled aluminium tubing, Clearing VIII also encourages one to pick their way through the twists and turns of the whole-room installation.
Situated against the city skyline, the thin rounded smooth edges of the aluminium rings are juxtaposed with the solid angular infrastructure in the background. The end result is a massive installation that still manages to fit in harmoniously with its busy environment without stealing the spotlight.
A similar work that comes to mind is Italian sculptor Lorenzo Quinn’s What Goes Around Comes Around in Marina Bay Sands. Like Horizon Field Singapore, Quinn’s sculpture also features organic shapes made of aluminium and steel, propped up against the city skyline.
Despite being born out of a pandemic, Gormley’s latest installation still manages to exceed expectations with its massive scale and critical engagement with audiences.
Barring the minor inconvenience of poor weather conditions, the outdoor installation is a breath of fresh air, especially for first-time visitors of the gallery’s roof garden.
2. CLOSE V (1998)
A life-sized human sculpture, Close V, steals the spotlight from the floor of the National Gallery's entrance. PHOTO: LU MEI WEI EMMY
A human-like figure sprawled across the floor is the first sculpture of the exhibition to greet gallery visitors who are entering from the Coleman Street entrance at the City Hall Wing.
A classic Antony Gormley human figure, Close V presents a contemporary version of the classic mother and child image, alluding to our dependent relationship with our maternal planet in this era of ecological change.
Cast from the artist’s own body in solid iron, the figurative sculpture effectively explores the tension between the familiar and unfamiliar to evoke a feeling of unease in its audience. While the sculpture is in a typical shape of a human body, the dark and heavy iron material gives it such an intimidating quality that it becomes uncharacteristic of a human.
Close V cleverly uses shock value to provoke its audiences, particularly through the bold use of floor space which hinders one’s path. Additionally, its strategic placement at the gallery entrance certainly succeeds in holding the gaze of curious visitors.
3. FERMENT (2007)
The Ferment exhibit features an overlapping matrix of polygonal shapes that resembles a human figure. PHOTO: LU MEI WEI EMMY
A life-sized figure made up of a mass of irregular polygonal shapes hangs gracefully in a stairwell of the gallery. The next exhibit of the retrospective, Ferment, is hard to miss if you are navigating the stairs of the Supreme Court Foyer.
Inspired by frothing bubbles, Ferment is a construction of a seemingly dynamic energy field that consists of overlapping geometric patterns.
Up close, the work presents itself as a messy group of shapes entangled with each other. Yet, when one steps back to observe it from a distance, one can be pleasantly surprised that the chaotic mess actually depicts a human figure that seems to be either emerging from or disappearing into this matrix.
Visitors who are familiar with Gormley’s works might realise that Ferment bears a resemblance to Drift, another one of his works that has been housed in the foyer of the Marina Bay Sands hotel since 2009. Both works feature a matrix of overlapping polygonal geometric shapes suspended in the air, conveniently aided by the light reflecting on the steel of the outer cells to create an eye-catching appearance.
One must give recognition to the well-made curatorial decision of placing Ferment in a stairwell. Hanging effortlessly from the ceiling, the weightless-looking structure almost seems like a form of teasing to visitors who are struggling up the flight of stairs.
4. SENSE (1991)
Sense features a solid slab of concrete with details that evoke unnerving feelings, such as a pair of emerging handprints. PHOTO: LU MEI WEI EMMY
Possibly the most unassuming piece in the exhibition, Sense appears as a boring slab of concrete at first glance.
Challenging traditions, Sense aims to reverse the body/space relations through the presentation of the human body as a void within a concrete cube.
Despite being plopped right in the centre of the Timeline Corridor in the Supreme Court Wing, the sculpture blends seamlessly into the background due to its muted tones. In fact, one might easily walk past the artwork while mistaking it for one of the gallery’s facilities.
While it’s greyish dull appearance is a far cry from the other eye-catching exhibits, a closer look reveals a surprisingly morbid element - a pair of palm prints and the top of a head emerging from the surface of the concrete. The unnerving thought of a crouching human body stuck in the concrete cube evokes a feeling of discomfort, especially when visitors are circling the sculpture in the narrower corridors of the museum.
A commentary on the continuum between human consciousness and the surrounding world, Sense is one of the more self-effacing works in this exhibition that does not scream for attention, yet still succeeds in leaving an impression.
Worth a visit?
Overall, the Antony Gormley exhibition absolutely delivers - Though the small-scale retrospective features only four artworks, it does not fall short of offering an all-encompassing experience that shocks, entertains and unsettles its audiences, owing to its well-considered curation. With the exhibition ongoing till the end of October in 2022, be sure to drop by the National Gallery Singapore to check it out!
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