Model Adventure

                                                                         "The Opening"-Chloe Cornell

Model

by Antony Gormley, WHITE CUBE Bermondsey Nov28 12 - Feb10 13

You wander into a darkened passage, crouching down. Inside the narrow confines of the tunnel it is pitch black. Suddenly the passage ahead widens out into a room, or at least that's what the echos tell you. You can't see your hands let alone a wall, so you feel your way around the room, mapping it out. Down another corridor you are suddenly blinded by a square of light spilling down from the cube ahead,without its roof. With this light you can see how the cubes and rectangles of the metal rooms connect and that the multiple cubes infringe and intercede on each other. This creates a cubist room, all hard lines and unexpected levels and spaces. You are acutely aware of where you are in space, sometimes height is a liability, and you strain to use all your senses to read your surroundings. People appear out of dark corner and their echoing voices make them sound like you are in a large shipping container. Sometimes the cubes intersect in such a way that you must crawl to get into all the nooks. There is an air of discovery and wonder as you embark into the unknown. There is even an element of danger if you aren't careful, as indicated by the release form you signed before entering. You finally sit in a small corridor that is hard to reach and let the darkness sink in, and revel at the light ahead.

Well at least that was indicative of my experience. It really was exciting and in a way.. dreamy. This must be how I imagine explorers would feel mapping out a new landscape. While we do this often in our daily lives there was something about the hard metal surfaces in such straight and uniform lines combined with the unexpected light here and there that made the experience very visceral.

While the exhibition also showed models depicting his design procedure I was most taken with the sheer space of his Model shaped of dark metal cubes intersecting to form the shape of a prone body.

1. 

Antony Gormley on his Model

2.

 entrance from the "left foot"

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