Artist Connection: Antony Gormley & Aluminium Wire Experiment

DRIFT, 2007 - 2012

The above images feature 'Drift' from 2007-2012.

• "I've never been interested in making statues. Rather than representing the body itself, I try to show the space where the body was. Neither architecture nor anatomy, the DRIFT works are more like the random matrices found in fractal geometry. These bundles of nothing are the most de-materialised works I have ever made. The bodies are free, lost in space, weightless, and with no internal determination - they are not 'acting.' They appear as emergent zones: you cannot be sure whether the bubble matrix is produced by the body zone or the zone by the matrix. The bubble matrix series is the closest I get to Brancusi's notion that you can turn an object into light. He did it by polishing sculptures, whereas I have tried to do it by abandoning weight and mass and dissolving surface."(Antonygormley.com)

• Drift is made using 3mm square stainless steel bars.
• The way the material fills the space, it makes the sold sculpture look like a liquid, its mesmerising in the way that it fills the space, rather than though its material.
• Gormley is interested in his work representing space the way that a lot of sculptors are concerned with as I have found during my previous research, but the way that Gormley does this is slightly different as many of his works, like these three I have chosen, capture the space by leaving the space revealed. They are not closed or solid sculptures, and I like the idea of working with the fluidity of the space in between. 

Console III 2016

• I found this artwork after my further design (see below) yet it seems quite similar.
• The thin bars work well to create an extension of the cube, and look like a geometric pattern at the same time.

CHORD, 2016

• "CHORD is a light weight reply to the fixity of a column, an obelisk, or even Brancusi's Endless Colum: all of these convey an impression of stability and make a solid bridge between above and below, whereas CHORD evokes a more dynamic relationship between matter and energy. "(Antonygormley.com)
• The way this has been joined using balls to connect the tubes looks interesting and could be something to incorporate with the joining of my own metals.
• I am still more compelled by the material than anything, and how it has adapted to the space around it.
• Gormley compares his work to Brancusi, suggesting that he is Brancusi's postmodern counterpart.

Reflections and own work:

• Last term I was inspired by Anthony Gormley so I created some designs using aluminium wire which reflected a geometric pattern. Below is the documentation of the first attempt at my aluminium wire experiment:

Reflections and future development:

• I don't think this style of work represents what I want to achieve. I could continue this sculpture  and make a larger structure, but the imperfections within the work is too much for me - the uneven wire and joining methods just look too tacky. 
• Gormley offers a new approach to look at expanding my own practice, to enable my sculpture to have a more sold form, and joining methods.
• If I can figure out how to weld metal, my work would be so much more succinct. I could try stainless steel or aluminium bars to weld instead of this thin metal wire, and experiment in the ways Antony Gormley does, particularly in his work 'Drift', as the capturing of space is turned into a sold sculpture, which at the same time looks like space itself.