 (1999) will occupy a position of maximum exposure, being visible from the ground floor of the 

 and in passing, as the visitor ascends the escalator to the top floor.

The installation is accompanied. on 5 October. by the display of 

 (1999), a selection of drawings shown in the Gallery’s first floor balcony within sight of the sculpture. Like the sculpture, these compelling works present a solitary figure occupying a void.

Describing the work, the artist has said:

‘Considering the National Portrait Gallery as a place of memory, this work is purposefully positioned at the heart of the building, where it engages with the changing light of day and the moving bodies of visitors being lifted through the space on the escalator.

Suspended, the work energises space through mass and invites a certain degree of attention and self-awareness in the viewer. 

 is an index; it is neither symbol nor traditional representation. It is a meditation on mortality and materialisation, what I have called a corpograph, close to a fossil, but industrially-made. Its origins are acknowledged in the clear de-composition and re-making of the original body and the tabs that indicate the entry points of molten iron within the sand mould that formed it.’

National Portrait Gallery

, 1999, cast iron, 195 × 52 × 37 cm. Photograph by Victoria Miller, Digital Programmes © National Portrait Gallery, London.

, 1999, suite of nine drawings, shellac, varnish and oil paint on paper, 38 × 28 cm. Photograph by Victoria Miller, Digital Programmes © National Portrait Gallery, London.

Object

Related content

Range Of Media

Lost Paradise Lost