Domain XV

Antony Gormley

'Making sculpture stems from a need to leave a trace of existence, but there is an even greater need to challenge existence itself with mute objects that look back at us and question our materiality with their own.' (Antony Gormley cited in: Michael Mack, (ed.), Antony Gormley, Göttingen 2007, p. 9)

The renowned sculptor Antony Gormley is known for his exploration into the intricate interaction between space and the human form. His works challenge the relationship between the individual space we feel within our own bodies and the exterior space around us. The present sculpture forms part of Gormley’s Domain series, carried out between 1999 and 2009, in which the artist seeks to reveal these concealed elements of the human figure through form. Gormley defines the series as an emblem of the ability to surpass the limitations of the skin and purpose of the body as ‘a place of transformation’. He describes the role of the sculptor as dealing with ‘matter’; ‘They deal with objects, they deal with bodies, but I think, really, what I care about most is making space’. (Sculpted Space: Within and Without, Tedglobal, June 2012, www.ted. com/talks). Gormley’s Domain series represents the paradox intrinsic to the quality of sculptural figuration: the creation of material propositions alongside and in relation to the limitless, dimensionless quality of space itself. This is reiterated through the open quality of the steel construction, which allows the viewer to see both the form and the interior of the work. Comprised through various lengths of welded steel rods, the interplay between structure and transparency plays on the value of visibility compared with imagination. The resulting work appears as if it's floating, providing the shape of the human body with the sense of weightlessness.

"The Domains, as Gormley says, are a kind of drawing in space. Although they are clearly three-dimensional...a body has been built up using lines as its constituents, hatched just as in the practice of drawing, creating and dispersing volumes with nothing more than the steel rods that always point to their own density as lines." (D. Leader, Drawing in Space: Antony Gormley, From Making Space published by BALTIC, 2004, www.whitecube.com)

Antony Gormley Domain XV stainless steel sculpture
Artist
Antony Gormley (b.1950)
Title
Domain XV
Medium
Stainless steel
Notes
4.76 mm square section stainless steel bar
Date
2000
Size
74 3/4 x 24 3/4 x 17 3/4 in : 190.0 x 63.0 x 45.0 cm
Provenance
White Cube Gallery, London; Acquired from the above by the previous owner
Reference
C15-49
Status
Currently Unavailable

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