Weekend Off at the Hayward Gallery

Another one in Gormley's series of 'Figures' quite literally re-presenting the body. It was an exercise in descriptive study of the human body and a simple projection onto concrete as a material. There was a side narrative of accumulating marks and character - shutter patterns from the timber, bird droppings from outdoor exhibitions, stains from weathering, etc. The hardiness and its initial and temporal plastic character of concrete lent itself well to this.
This installation immediately reminded my of Diller & Scofidio's Cloud building.

The experience inside was rather amazing and one's sense of space shifts to the immediate vicinity. Left, right, up and down, all one could see was whiteness. Without the benefit of relying on sight to situate oneself, one's skin was as far as one could expand the mind's eye toward. It was like one was floating but without the sense of weightlessness - disconcerting perhaps because of that. I was just acutely aware of me and the occassional other bewildered visitor passing by.

This was the other installation in the exhibition. Slightly w&-k.

3/4 hour wait, 2 persons in there each time. Enough said.
Look closer - there is a body from the Matrices series there. The antithesis of the one below.

It was a small (typical Hayward Gallery) show but big in his consistency and his focus. Gormley's sculpture activates thoughts of spaces, the body's that inhabit it, the body's space within and without and the sentient body.