return to worldwidereview.com, the home of critical reviews

Antony Gormley : Blind Light at the Hayward Gallery

From:     Eva
Category: Art
Date:     04 August 2007
Time:     05:31 PM

Review:

I went straight for the steam room because my friends have been telling me how good it is. It was an
interesting experience, if a bit annoying to realise that in the absence of anything else to focus
on I can see the dirt on my contact lenses. I couldn’t stay there too long because my exhibition
programme was getting soggy and I was beginning to feel breathless. This could have been existential
angst or it could have been the steam lowering the oxygen level.  I like Gormley’s stunt-artworks
but I can’t stand his drawings or formal sculptures. His two dimensional works, like the one with
the toast bitemark person, are too corny. Gormley needs heightened scale or sensation. 

I’ve never seen all the Hayward Gallery’s terraces open at the same time before. They should do it
more often, you can see across London and ponder on the way they’re doing up the South Bank. I
wonder whether London will go bust even before the Olympics. 

At least three times a week I cycle over Waterloo Bridge. Recently I’ve enjoyed seeing Gormley’s men
cemented into the pavement or tottering at the edge of buildings. I’ve seen many tourists dress up
the ones on the bridge and pose next to them for lewd photos. Leaving the Hayward you get a feeling
that you’re still in the show because of the way these men claim the space between roof tops. A few
people have told me they don’t like Gormley because they find him arrogant. I can see their point
but don’t think arrogance is always a problem.  It was a good exhibition overall and high production
values do produce results. The ideas are not hugely sophisticated, but they’re certainly popular and
very open to interpretation - so you can love them or hate them depending on how you like to look at
the world. I haven’t bothered changing my contact lenses because I can’t see the smudge in normal light.


return to worldwidereview.com, the home of critical reviews