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Lot Essay
The human body in its broadest sense is Gormley's language. His meditations on its physical reality and its spiritual and philosophical dimensions are some of the best-known sculptural landmarks in the UK.
In this tiny silver sculpture of a foetus, Gormley has isolated the moment of development where it takes on a human existence; all the basic organs in their nascent form have coalesced to become a potential human being. Interestingly, this piece is one of the few not cast from Gormley's own body or elaborated from moulds of it: he modelled in clay his own imagined prenatal features.
In this tiny silver sculpture of a foetus, Gormley has isolated the moment of development where it takes on a human existence; all the basic organs in their nascent form have coalesced to become a potential human being. Interestingly, this piece is one of the few not cast from Gormley's own body or elaborated from moulds of it: he modelled in clay his own imagined prenatal features.