Antony Gormley's 'Field for the British Isles' Exhibition

20th August 2008

Opening times : Monday -Friday 10am -5pm, Saturday 10am -4pm, Sunday CLOSED

Discover Antony Gormley's world-famous Field for the British Isles exhibition from 20th June to 23rd August at St.Helens College in St.Helens town centre.

Field for the British Isles is one of Antony Gormley's most famous and best-loved artworks, comprising a mini terracotta army of 40,000 figurines for which he won the prestigious Turner Prize in 1994. This sensational exhibition marks Field's first homecoming to St.Helens where it was created by local volunteers 15 years ago, and is the centerpiece of the Borough's summer events programme and contribution to Liverpool's European Capital of Culture celebrations. The exhibition also complements Gormley's "Another Place" - the 100 lifesize "iron men" permanently installed on Crosby beach near Southport.

"Field" has been installed and displayed at various locations. The specific configuration is changed to suit each location, but the miniature figures are always placed to form a dense carpet with each figure looking towards the viewer. Ideally the Field is extended through a doorway or round a corner, so that the figures going out of sight leave the impression of an unlimited horde. Gormley has also made several other works entitled "Field", each on a different continent.

Gormley describes his work as "an attempt to materialise the place at the other side of appearance where we all live." Many of his works are based on moulds taken from his own body, or "the closest experience of matter that I will ever have and the only part of the material world that I live inside." His work attempts to treat the body not as a thing but a place and in making works that enclose the space of a particular body to identify a condition common to all human beings. The work is not symbolic but indexical - a trace of a real event of a real body in time. For further information on the artist and his other works, please see: www.antonygormley.com.