Hands, 2005

As a sculptor, almost all of Antony Gormley’s works take the human body as its subject – many works make use of his own body, or that of his friends, as the basis for metal casts. Gormley has described his work as ‘an attempt to materialise the place at the other side of appearance where we all live’ - his Event Horizon piece featured 31 separate life-sized and anatomically correct casts of his body – four in iron and 27 in fiberglass – situated along the tops of buildings along London’s South Bank, and later installed around Madison Square in New York City; of these works, Gormley has stated that they may encourage individuals to ‘reassess their own position in the world’ and become aware of their ‘status of embedment’. Among other notable works is the Angel of The North, a public steel sculpture situated in Gateshead, United Kingdom – the sculpture measures at 66ft tall with wings measuring 177ft across. (Artist website)