Culture Now: Antony Gormley

Join us for a lunchtime talk with Antony Gormley in conversation with Professor John Hutnyk and Hugh Brody.

Antony Gormley is known for his large-scale sculptures, which have become part of the topography of many cities around the world. His works investigate the body as a place of transformation and a vehicle for communication. Employing notions of geometry and the language of architecture, Gormley represents the body as an open place, exploring the connections with the space at large. He questions the relationship between the individual and the collective, often engaging the audience in active participation. In 2009 the artist’s work One & Other was selected for the Fourth Plinth Commission, for which through an open call Gormley invited members of the public to spend one hour each on the vacant plinth.

Antony Gormley was born in 1950 in London, where he lives and works. After traveling for a few years he attended Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and Goldsmiths London from 1974. He then studied sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London, between 1977 and 1979. Gormley has participated in major group exhibitions around the world, including the International Sculpture Biennale of Carrara (2008 and 2010), the Sydney Biennale (2006), Documenta VIII, Kassel, Germany (1987) the Venice Biennale (1982 and 1986).  He was awarded the Turner Prize in 1994 and made an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1997. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, has been a Royal Academician since 2003 and a trustee of the British Museum since 2007.

Professor John Hutnyk is Academic Director of the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths and author of several books, including The Rumour of Calcutta (1996), Critique of Exotica (2000) and Bad Marxism: Capitalism and Cultural Studies (2004). His most recent work is the edited volume Beyond Borders, Pavement Books, 2012. 

Hugh Brody is an anthropologist, writer and film-maker. He was born in 1943 and educated at Trinity College, Oxford. He taught social anthropology at Queen's University, Belfast. He is an Honorary Associate of the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge and holds the Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Studies at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, BC. He was an adviser to the Mackenzie Pipeline Inquiry, a member of the World Bank's famous Morse Commission and chairman of the Snake River Independent Review. Since 1997 he has worked with the South African San Institute on Bushman history and land rights in the Southern Kalahari.