Antony Gormley at the Royal Academy

Slabworks

Did the Antony Gormley exhibition live up to my expectations? Oh yes! There was something very powerful about being close to his work, a totally different feeling from looking at paintings.

There are twelve rooms in all, the first one is called Slabworks and consist of steel slabs cut with precision using industrial methods then stacked. Each represents a body lying, sitting, leaning etc. The closer you look the more you see. The really big installations are awesome - The Matrix and Clearing - and the  there is the room called Lost Horizons with the body cases at all angles - hanging from the ceiling, projecting from the wall. It's quite disorientating. There are rooms with paintings and sketches and Gormley's workbooks. And then there is The Cave. If you don't want to walk into the dark tunnel you can go around the outside. Though I don't like dark spaces I ventured in, hand to the wall (as advised) to make sure I followed the wall round. You come out into the cave where light filters in at odd angles before you exit down another short corridor back out (I did hit my head once on the low ceiling!).

When you leave the exhibition there is a room with a large table and benches. Here  you can sit and look through a selection of books, including the exhibition book (which I did!).

How ever many photos you take (and I took a lot), nothing can be as powerful as being there and seeing it for yourself. The exhibition lasts until the 3rd December, so not long to get there if you want to see it. I very rarely book exhibitions in advance, but I would advise you do so as times slots are selling out or have already sold out.

Will I find something to write about here, to put into a poem? Oh I think so!

Matrix

Matrix

Clearing

Clearing fits the room and in some place
is right against the wall. Care needs to be taken!

Subject

The Workbooks

Lost Horizon

The cave (entrance on the right)

The outside of the cave structure

Host