Event Horizon (sculpture)
{{Short description|Public sculpture installation by Antony Gormley}}
{{Infobox artwork
| title = Event Horizon
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| image = Event horizon sculpture.jpg
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| caption = One of 31 statues placed on top of prominent buildings next to the river Thames
| artist = Antony Gormley
| year = {{start date|2007}}
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| medium = Fiberglass and cast iron
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| subject = Self-portrait
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| city = London
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| website = [https://web.archive.org/web/20100314053036/http://eventhorizonnewyork.org/ New York installation guide]
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{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
Event Horizon is the name of a large-scale public sculpture installation by the British artist Antony Gormley. First displayed in London in 2007, they were later displayed in New York, downtown São Paulo{{cite web
|last = Lanxon
|first = Nate
|title = In focus: Antony Gormley's Event Horizon
|work = Wired UK
|date = 10 May 2012
|url = https://www.wired.co.uk/news/wired-aperture/2012-05/aperture-10-may/viewgallery#!image-number=1
|access-date = 7 July 2012
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120624193902/http://www.wired.co.uk/news/wired-aperture/2012-05/aperture-10-may/viewgallery#!image-number=1
|archive-date = 24 June 2012
|url-status = dead
}}
and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.{{cite web
| last = Sodre
| first = Iracema
| title = Antony Gormley's rooftop statues 'scare' passers-by in Rio
| quote = public reporting potential suicide jumpers (includes video story)
| publisher = BBC News
| date = 10 August 2012
| url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19199064
| access-date = 10 August 2012}} Gormley describes his statues as "...showing solitary figures installed in groups yet retaining their sense of solitude and reflection."{{Cite web|url=http://www.shafe.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/13-British-Figurative-Art-since-1950.pdf|title=British Figurative Art since 1950|last=Shafe|first=Laurence|access-date=2017-02-10}}
Installations
File:Gormley-10Je7-8118 crop reverse.jpg
Originally mounted in London in 2007, the project consists of 31 life-size anatomically correct male bodies, 27 constructed of fiberglass and four of cast iron,Hayward Gallery exhibition catalog for Blind Light all cast from the body of the artist himself.Event Horizon: Mad. Sq. Art.: Antony Gromley [http://eventhorizonnewyork.org Madison Square installation guide] which were placed on top of prominent buildings along the London's South Bank –
for example the Shell Building and Waterloo Bridge.[http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/article-23394709-details/Gormley's%20figures%20appear%20on%20London's%20Horizon/article.do Gormley's figures appear on London's Horizon| Arts & Exhibitions | This is London] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070906194305/http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/arts/article-23394709-details/Gormley%27s%20figures%20appear%20on%20London%27s%20Horizon/article.do |date=6 September 2007 }} Part of Gormley's 2007 retrospective exhibition Blind Light at the Hayward Gallery, it was best viewed from the gallery's terraces.[http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/calendar/productions/antony-gormley-797 Southbank Centre] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070429152318/http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/calendar/productions/antony-gormley-797 |date=29 April 2007 }} The statues were occasionally mistaken as suicide attempts. The installation was taken down in August and September 2007. Gormley had previously constructed a similar project, Another Place, in Crosby Beach, Merseyside, England.
File:Pentagram 204 Fifth Ave with Gormley.jpg]]
In 2010, the Event Horizon sculptures were installed in New York City at sites around Madison Square, as far downtown as Union Square and as far uptown as the Empire State Building. The 27 fiberglass figures were placed on setbacks and tops of buildings, while the four cast iron figures were on the ground in Madison Square Park. The installation was sponsored by the Madison Square Park Conservancy. The 2012 installation in São Paulo{{cite web |url=https://www.wired.co.uk/news/wired-aperture/2012-05/aperture-10-may/viewgallery#!image-number=1 |title=In focus: Antony Gormley's Event Horizon |access-date=7 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120624193902/http://www.wired.co.uk/news/wired-aperture/2012-05/aperture-10-may/viewgallery#!image-number=1 |archive-date=24 June 2012 |url-status=dead }} and the 2015–16 show in Hong Kong are the same as the London design, presented by British Council partnered with K11 Art Foundation.{{Cite web|url=https://www.britishcouncil.hk/en/about/press/event-horizon-public-art-project-antony-gormley|title=Antony Gormley chooses Hong Kong for Event Horizon project |publisher= British Council|access-date=2017-02-10}}
Reception
Critic Howard Halle said of it that "Using distance and attendant shifts of scale within the very fabric of the city, [Event Horizon] creates a metaphor for urban life and all the contradictory associations – alienation, ambition, anonymity, fame – it entails." Both in New York, London and Hong Kong, the figures were mistaken as suicide attempts.{{cite web |url=http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/03/nyc_cops_assure_public_figures.html |access-date=10 March 2010 |title=N.Y.C. cops assure public figures on midtown rooftops are statues, not jumpers |date=10 March 2010 }}{{cite news |url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKL1853003220070618 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070621160149/http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKL1853003220070618 |url-status=dead |archive-date=21 June 2007 |title=Rooftop statues prompt suicide fear calls |access-date=10 March 2010 | agency=Reuters| date=18 June 2007}}{{Cite news|url=http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1878464/naked-man-sculptures-hong-kongs-rooftops-spark|title='Naked Man' sculptures on Hong Kong's rooftops spark calls to police after they're mistaken for suicide attempts|newspaper=South China Morning Post|access-date=2017-02-10}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.hongkongfp.com/2015/11/13/life-sized-statues-on-rooftops-give-hongkongers-a-scare/|title=Life-sized statues on rooftops give Hongkongers a scare, prompt calls to police|last=Cheung|first=Karen|date=2015-11-13|publisher=Hong Kong Free Press|access-date=2017-02-10}} The installation's display at Chater House in Hong Kong was cancelled when US investment bank JPMorgan, which has offices in the 30-storey skyscraper, asked its landlord, Hongkong Land – the sponsor of Event Horizon – to cancel its support for the show after bank employee Dennis Li Junjie jumped to his death from the building's roof in 2014.Cristina Ruiz (10 May 2014), [http://theartnewspaper.com/articles/Gormleys-Hong-Kong-installation-cancelled-after-bankers-suicide/32641 Gormley’s Hong Kong installation cancelled after banker’s suicide] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140514125316/http://theartnewspaper.com/articles/Gormleys-Hong-Kong-installation-cancelled-after-bankers-suicide/32641 |date=14 May 2014 }} The Art Newspaper.
Artist's interpretation
Gormley said of the London installation that "it was great to see an individual or groups of people pointing at the horizon. This transfer of the stillness of sculpture to the stillness of an observer is exciting to me: reflexivity becoming shared." Of the New York site he said that "Within the condensed environment of Manhattan's topography, the level of tension between the palpable, the perceivable and the imaginable is heightened because of the density and scale of the buildings" and that in this context, the project should "activate the skyline in order to encourage people to look around. In this process of looking and finding, or looking and seeking, one perhaps re-assesses one's own position in the world and becomes aware of one's status of embedment."
In popular culture
One of the figures from Event Horizon was featured in the opening credits of the 2008 first episode of the British TV series Ashes to Ashes.
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Event Horizon (sculpture)}}
- [http://www.antonygormley.com/#/sculptures/projects/all Artist's official website]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6614487.stm BBC News story]
- [https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&q=anthony+gormley+event+horizon+map&hl=en&om=1&msa=0&msid=113823231521286219489.000001129f24b176b435e&ll=51.509211,-0.117518&spn=0.012086,0.033689&z=16 Map of the statues' locations in London]
{{Antony Gormley}}
{{Public art in Manhattan}}
Category:2007 establishments in England
Category:2010 in the United States
Category:Fiberglass sculptures
Category:Installation art works
Category:Outdoor sculptures in London
Category:Outdoor sculptures in Manhattan