A life-sized Antony Gormley sculpture is to be installed on Margate’s old concrete jetty

The proposed Antony Gormley sculpture image submitted to TDC

A life-sized sculpture by renowned contemporary artist Antony Gormley will be installed at Fulsam Rock, a stone’s throw from Turner Contemporary, if planning permission is granted.

The Margate gallery and agent del Renzio & del Renzio LLP have applied for permission for the sculpture of a life-sized male human figure stood on a new foundation  on a section of redundant concrete jetty, set within the Fulsam Rock.

The sculpture

ANOTHER TIME is a series of one hundred sculptures and is identical to the 100 sculptures of ANOTHER PLACE (2007) which is permanently installed on Crosby Beach, Merseyside. The body forms are taken from 17 distinct body casting sessions that were carried out in 1995.

Each of the  individual pieces has been cast five or six times and shows the manner of its making – traces of cling film, mould joint lines, the sections of the plaster positive and the ingates for the molten metal are all clearly visible on the rusting surface.

The Margate sculpture will be the first time this particular casts have been exhibited.

Gallery and sea

The design statement to Thanet council says: “With this work, the artist wishes to celebrate the still and silent nature of sculpture. It is designed to be placed within the flow of lived time. ANOTHER TIME asks where the human being sits within the scheme of things. Each work is necessarily isolated, and is an attempt to bear witness to what it is like to be alive and alone in space and time.”

The site chosen at Margate is in full view of the main windows of the Turner Contemporary gallery and is intended to make a connection between gallery and sea, time and tide, art and nature. It is purposefully connected to existing rocks that are covered at high tide.  It is also visible from the Harbour Arm, Rendezvous and the beach.

The sculpture, made of cast iron and weighing 650kgs, and the rocks will be visible or disappear according to the tide, this will catalyse the desire to look out and see.

The Sunley Gallery and first-floor balcony of the gallery will become spaces from which visitors can view and experience Another Time.

A second Kent sculpture by Gormley

A second sculpture, this time of a pair of figures  placed on the shoreline, is planned for Folkestone.

In the design document a statement from Turner Contemporary says: “Antony Gormley has successfully realised a number of these projects at other sensitive, protected shoreline and tidal locations around the UK.

“Turner Contemporary is committed to working with all local, national and international authorities to ensure this exciting project is realised properly, with due care and diligence and with maximum positive impact for Margate and Kent as a whole.

Photo Dean Spinks

“Another Time (Margate and Folkestone) will bring sculpture of national significance by Antony Gormley, one of Britain’s foremost contemporary artists, to two coastal towns in Kent, celebrating and capitalising on the specifics of our locality: at the edge of land and sea.

“ It aims to increase cultural tourism within Kent linked to the Cultural Destinations initiative: a 3 year partnership between ACE and Visit England, which enables arts and culture organisations working in partnership with tourism agencies to increase their reach and resilience. Turner Contemporary is the lead organisation for Kent.”

Both sets of figures are planned to be in place from July to November 2017.

It will be the first time these particular casts from Gormley’s series have been exhibited and it will be Gormley’s first outdoor installation in Kent since Waste Man (Margate, 2006).

 

1 Comment

Comments are closed.