Body Space Time Opens At Galleria Continua San Gimignano
This solo presentation in San Gimignano continues Gormley’s lifelong investigation of the body as place and the structuring of space. While based on the subjective experience of the artist, the works on display call on the bodies of the viewers and their movement through the gallery.
The exhibition juxtaposes mass and space through the idiom of the body, beginning with Space (2021), a grounded cloud of interconnected stainless steel spaceframes, in dialogue with Body (2021), a milled solid iron cube weighing two tonnes. At the center of the exhibition lies Frame II (2021), a body-space structure the size of a house, made of interconnected aluminium frames, intended to be viewed from the stalls and balcony of the old theatre now gallery space. In contrast, a bold and weighty mass of cast iron Blockworks will be held in the tight labyrinthine cellars of the 14th century townhouse. For the first time, the artist will show works both in their raw and highly finished states, as well as works that have been cast as one form, and others that will simply be placed next to or on top of each other. As such, throughout the show there is a play between loose and fixed, open and closed, mass and space.
Photograph: Stem III, 2019, cast iron and high tensile steel, 62.9 x 38.5 x 58.3 cm. Photograph by Stephen White & Co.