Art World
Savage Storm Destroys Antony Gormley Seaside Sculpture
The statue was supposed to be on view until May 2016.
A cast iron sculpture by British artist Antony Gormley has fallen victim to the elements. The life-size artwork which was installed on the rocks at a beach in Dorset, England was blown into the water by a wind storm.
Gormley was commissioned to create the sculpture by the British conservation charity Landmark Trust to mark the organization’s 50th anniversary. At its unveiling in May 2015, Gormley described the artwork as a “catalyst for reflection.”
The artwork was supposed to remain on its the rocky perch until May 2016, but its seaside outing was cut short by force majeure.
According to the BBC, many locals won’t be too upset after the mishap. “I know it wasn’t popular with everyone,” Howard J. Curtis, who discovered the work after the accident, told the broadcaster.
However, the Landmark Trust told the Bournemouth Echo “We are aware that the Land sculpture has come down in the storm at Kimmeridge Bay and we are taking steps to deal with it ASAP.”
The installation, which is part of a series called Land, includes four other statues dispersed around Britain.
Similar artworks stand at Lenghtsman’s Cottage, Lowsonford, in Warwickshire; Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel; Martello Tower, Aldeburgh, in Suffolk; and Saddell Bay, Mull of Kintyre, Scotland.
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