The exhibition was his award winning terracotta figures
40 thousand Faces looking forward at you.
The piece had a strength and an emotion which has never been beaten and I remember standing for hour and hour just feeling the power of those tiny faces
The figures do plead " what are we doing?"
" what shall we do?"
Power that, I remember kept me standing and watching for a couple of hours on a blustery Yorkshire afternoon
Facebook thoughtfully sent me this final photo this morning. It was taken years ago when I was cloudwatching on the top of Gop Hill. The Scottish terrier isn't George , it was Maddie .
Maddie was a delightfully opinionated lady who mistrusted and disliked most of the living world around her. She was grumpy and stoic and in her own way quite magnificent and this selfi showed a rare burst of affection from a lady who preferred her own company.
Like the Gormley figures, Maddie was nothing but honest
I miss her straightforwardness
Thank you John and Nigel for yesterday x
I visited that very same exhibition in Weston Park Museum and I was similarly moved by it but my experience was partly spoilt by a stout chap munching a scotch egg in the doorway. Would he never leave and allow me a proper look? Every one of those little terracotta figures was different from the next. Antony Gormley is a genius.
ReplyDeleteHaha … brilliant YP :-)
DeleteYes i was wetting myself at the " stout" comment
DeleteI think I need to get a Scottish Terrier … they sound a lot like me!!
ReplyDeleteI have a Maddie, her name is Lil. She's elderly, grumpy and sweet. We used to have goldens, but fifteen years ago brought home a Scottie--now we're on our fourth. They're not for everyone, but once you have one, they steal your heart.
ReplyDeleteU sum them up very well
DeleteYes they steal your heart. Daughter told me I can't live with out one.
DeleteI have always had terriers but Scotties. . . there is just something about them. I too am lucky to have my fourth right now.
parsnip
i thought all of those faces were people showing up to earn the bounty offered to take out trump.
ReplyDeleteAn alternative view indeed x
DeleteIf only ...
Deletethat is quite a shocking moving piece of art.
ReplyDeletechilling.
I found it moving and strangely very warm
DeleteIt makes me think of us being but grains of sand when viewed as a whole.
ReplyDeleteAnd how powerful are we when we stand together
DeleteI saw those little figures too, and started to cry a little, they were so moving. All those tiny eyes.
ReplyDeleteI too remember feeling overwhelmed
DeleteGormley has a sensitivity which people often miss. I remember that overwhelming feeling too. That photo of Maddie with you brought tears to my eyes John -
ReplyDeleteTo me too weave....because she was so stand offish, when she forgot herself and became playfully affectionate I moved me all the more
DeleteBreathtaking sight, those 40,000 eyes!
ReplyDeleteWas going to add a comment about those fires in OZ and their catastrophic effect on the animals, but if I don't try to blank it out of my mind I swear I'll go mad. So I won't. :-(
A catastrophe a real disaster Raymondo x
DeleteOops. Actually EIGHTY thousand eyes, of course!
DeleteI find those little creatures unnerving John and to me they are pleading for help.I have had 9 rescue dogs and mostly terriers who are not the easiest and quite opinionated but love the chaos of living with them x
ReplyDeleteAre the figures supposed to look like people? If so, I don't see that at all ... I see little furry creatures! Perhaps it's to appear to the observer in a way that is most meaningful to the observer.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen that work before. It's a little creepy, isn't it? To me it seems to represent the overpopulation of the planet -- a proliferation of humans until there's no more space. Love the photo with Maddie!
ReplyDeleteMemorable! I wonder how long it took the artist to make all those little figures.
ReplyDeleteHe didn't make them himself - they were a collective effort, brick clay shaped to the brief “Hand-sized, stand up and have eyes”.
DeleteInfo on https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/nov/15/antony-gormley-work-of-40000-terracotta-figures-goes-on-show
How amazing that exhibit must have been. The sheer numbers are astonishing. It makes me think of what all of creation is asking us humans about what we're doing to the planet and to each other.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't around when Maddie was, so 'twas nice to meet her.
Hugs!
That is an overwhelming art installation. Really powerful.
ReplyDeleteLove the picture of Maddie and you, John. Such a good girl in her own perfect way.
Creepy, like a fungus or swarm of bugs, but the little creatures are oddly endearing up close. A human metaphor?
ReplyDeleteHuman faces...I saw as hopeful
DeleteThe shear number of the figures blows me away. It is hard to imagine how they are all put in place. It makes me feel how many of us there are as if it showing the scale of the human population. They appear human to me.
ReplyDeleteThis installation has an alternative title: 'Things Are Looking Up'.
ReplyDeleteI like that
DeleteThe art you show here is moving in many ways. It is hopeful, moving and frightening all at once. Is this our future?
ReplyDeleteAre you sure Maddie was not just licking up the scraps of egg, breadcrumbs and meat?
ReplyDeleteThe Gormley installation looks stunning and could provoke many thoughts (many of them rather dark, I find, unfortunately).
Maybe I need to work on my positivity. I am a "Scottie" myself, of the human variety (although I have never tried licking a man's face, and don't ever intend to).
In her eleven years I never saw her so affectionate than I did on that cloud watching day
Deletethat exhibit is haunting indeed.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about the exhibit it looks like they are all asking for help and I can't help them give me nightmares. Oh I love the Maddie photo.
ReplyDeleteIt's a wonderful piece of art. I've never seen it in the flesh although I've seen photos of it many times. It makes me think of the ever-expanding global population.
ReplyDeleteThat’s an amazing but of art. I wouldn’t have been able to look away.
ReplyDeleteI started following your blog just after Maddie died, it is good to see her.
ReplyDeletePeter
and now youre making fat horses and clay pots... where on greens earth are you going to fit 40,000 little people? Or is the new cottage re-do youve been talkng about? :D
ReplyDelete