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Lot Essay
'Construct I is part of a series of solid cast iron works initiated as a materialisation of the void space evident in the concrete geometrical blocks such as Flesh, Base and Sense from the early 1990s. In this work, the body is a sensor of its own condition, the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet are vertical planes pushing against virtual walls. The body as the site of life is tested against the room as the site of the body: implicating the viewer's presence in the process' (Antony Gormley, May 2012).
Lying supine with outstretched arms, appearing to hover just above the ground, Construct I is an early cast iron sculpture by Antony Gormley. Executed in 1996, it belongs to a series which represented an important shift in the artist's practice, marking the first time that Gormley created solid iron casts of his body taken directly from a mould, mediated merely through a thin sheet of cling film. With its chest, finger tips and toes reaching towards the heavens, this figure appears to levitate in the air, as if defying gravity. The palms of the hands and the soles of the feet seem to push against an invisible wall, testing the boundaries of the space enveloping the body.
First exhibited in 1996 in Inside the Inside at Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, Construct I was shown alongside Reach I, Test I, Concentrate I and Compound I. The five works included in this exhibition contemplated the space occupied and perceived by the body. As the artist has commented, 'My work is to make bodies into vessels that both contain and occupy space. Space exists outside the door and inside my head. My work is to make a human space in space' (A. Gormley, quoted in 'Notes by the Artist', Antony Gormley: Five Works, exh. cat., Serpentine Gallery, London, 1987, unpaged).
The Inside the Inside series was created as a response to Gormley's geometrical block works from the early 1990s, such as Flesh (1990), Sense (1991) and Base (1993). Base, which incorporates the body with limbs stretching outwards within its concrete form, can be understood as a particularly significant precedent to Construct I. Gormley's concrete works sought to capture the space occupied by architecture and, in turn, the human form's place within this space. In creating the concrete works, the artist employed the lost wax process to cast a human body-shaped void inside a block. In this way, the cast iron figure of Construct I represents a conceptual and physical counterpoint to the concrete sculptures, denoting a material embodiment of the void space found inside Gormley's earlier works.
The warm and ferrous material of Construct I emphasizes the corporeality of the sculpture, while also highlighting the paradoxical nature of a solid body that has been suspended, almost buoyant in the air. The physicality and weight of the body directly contrasts with the invisibility and lightness of the air that surrounds it, with the cast iron material acting as a threshold between the positive and negative space of the human form.
Moulded from the artist's own body, the casting technique of Construct I enabled Gormley to capture a meditative moment in time. The artist began to experiment with cast iron in 1990, however in Construct I Gormley allows the form of his sculptures to reveal the process of their making. Resembling an architectural juncture in the body, the small circular plates on the shoulders, chest and buttocks of the sculpture allude to the industrial method necessary to create this robust and durable structure. In Construct I Gormley boldly challenges our understanding of gravitational force. The impenetrable, dense sculpture presents an elegant illusion, the human body appearing poised and freely balanced in space.
Lying supine with outstretched arms, appearing to hover just above the ground, Construct I is an early cast iron sculpture by Antony Gormley. Executed in 1996, it belongs to a series which represented an important shift in the artist's practice, marking the first time that Gormley created solid iron casts of his body taken directly from a mould, mediated merely through a thin sheet of cling film. With its chest, finger tips and toes reaching towards the heavens, this figure appears to levitate in the air, as if defying gravity. The palms of the hands and the soles of the feet seem to push against an invisible wall, testing the boundaries of the space enveloping the body.
First exhibited in 1996 in Inside the Inside at Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, Construct I was shown alongside Reach I, Test I, Concentrate I and Compound I. The five works included in this exhibition contemplated the space occupied and perceived by the body. As the artist has commented, 'My work is to make bodies into vessels that both contain and occupy space. Space exists outside the door and inside my head. My work is to make a human space in space' (A. Gormley, quoted in 'Notes by the Artist', Antony Gormley: Five Works, exh. cat., Serpentine Gallery, London, 1987, unpaged).
The Inside the Inside series was created as a response to Gormley's geometrical block works from the early 1990s, such as Flesh (1990), Sense (1991) and Base (1993). Base, which incorporates the body with limbs stretching outwards within its concrete form, can be understood as a particularly significant precedent to Construct I. Gormley's concrete works sought to capture the space occupied by architecture and, in turn, the human form's place within this space. In creating the concrete works, the artist employed the lost wax process to cast a human body-shaped void inside a block. In this way, the cast iron figure of Construct I represents a conceptual and physical counterpoint to the concrete sculptures, denoting a material embodiment of the void space found inside Gormley's earlier works.
The warm and ferrous material of Construct I emphasizes the corporeality of the sculpture, while also highlighting the paradoxical nature of a solid body that has been suspended, almost buoyant in the air. The physicality and weight of the body directly contrasts with the invisibility and lightness of the air that surrounds it, with the cast iron material acting as a threshold between the positive and negative space of the human form.
Moulded from the artist's own body, the casting technique of Construct I enabled Gormley to capture a meditative moment in time. The artist began to experiment with cast iron in 1990, however in Construct I Gormley allows the form of his sculptures to reveal the process of their making. Resembling an architectural juncture in the body, the small circular plates on the shoulders, chest and buttocks of the sculpture allude to the industrial method necessary to create this robust and durable structure. In Construct I Gormley boldly challenges our understanding of gravitational force. The impenetrable, dense sculpture presents an elegant illusion, the human body appearing poised and freely balanced in space.