Jan 27th, 2019: Aliens in Philly

Aliens, tall blocky creatures, curiously all named Rusty, have landed in Philly and were last seen massing by the Art Museum.
Using a sophisticated AI computer from the University of Pennsylvania, the City Fathers have managed rudimentary communication.
It’s still fuzzy at this point but the apparently are looking for a human named Rocky.

British sculptor Antony Gormley presents STAND, an installation of ten cast-iron blockworks, as a speculation on how public sculpture in an urban context can re-engage with the subjective feeling of the citizen. Each rising ten feet high and weighing nearly three tons, the assemblage of figures is arrayed monumentally along the iconic steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. While the series takes a symmetrical, forefrontal occupation along the axis of the grand neo-classical building, the figures are not traditional statues, or portraits of the moral and the great. They are not representative of a national era. Rather, each abstracted figure invites the viewer to act as a ‘co-producer’ of the work, to both project and recognize internal affinities within the postural attitude it carries.

The postures of each figure were initially developed through the influence of such words as lull, daze, prop, and ponder. While each word served as a catalyst for formation during his creative process, Gormley regards each figure as a sculptural rorschach test, inviting the viewer to generate their own translation. The works therefore have no meaning until there is a projected recognition from the viewer. The human likeness, or memetic factor of each figure is abstracted by the materiality and architectural language of the work. The installation will be on view from january 24th through june 16th, 2019 at the philadelphia museum of art, which is currently undergoing a transformative renovation by Frank Gehry.

Want the [strike]English[/strike] American translation of the last paragraph?
It says, we spent a shitload of your money to bring culture to your city and class to you. If you are such a lowlife scumbag that
you can’t project meaning on these exquisite forms, then no class, no culture, no hope, for you.
In others words, if you don’t like it it’s your fault, you failed, get thee to an nunnery. :mock:

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Antony Gormley seems to have an obsession with sculptures of this type.
Just north of Liverpool at Crosby beach he has installed 100 cast iron figures all of which look out to sea.
Entitled 'Another Place' Gormley describes it thus:

Another Place harnesses the ebb and flow of the tide to explore man's relationship with nature.
He explains: The seaside is a good place to do this. Here time is tested by tide, architecture by the elements and the prevalence of sky seems to question the earth's substance.
In this work human life is tested against planetary time.
This sculpture exposes to light and time the nakedness of a particular and peculiar body.
It is no hero, no ideal, just the industrially reproduced body of a middle-aged man trying to remain standing and trying to breathe, facing a horizon busy with ships moving materials and manufactured things around the planet.

So now you know.

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It is not known whether the dog went on to express an artistic opinion.

Liverpool and Philly are his Sodom and Gomorrah. His works are all Lot's wife.

Carruthers;1024242 wrote:

It is not known whether the dog went on to express an artistic opinion.

Yes it is. ;)

Brilliant!

Go to the top of the class, Bruce! :biglaugha

I like this guy's work.
He must have a lot of students or staff or something to make so many different pieces in so many varied installations.

He seems to use a lot of words to say, well, damn near nothing.

Diaphone Jim;1024261 wrote:

I like this guy's work.
He must have a lot of students or staff or something to make so many different pieces in so many varied installations.

It's cast iron, so whip up a figure and let the foundry do their thing. The Philly one could have been made in sections that could be moved around to make the different pieces between pourings. At 3 tons each they may or may not be hollow or partially so. It's probably as much work to get the installed.

According to Wikipedia, the figures in 'Another Place' each weigh about 650kgs/1430lbs and were cast in foundries in Halifax, West Yorkshire and West Bromwich, West Midlands.

Now, if you want the real heavyweight stuff you'll need to have a look at Gormley's 'Angel of the North' sculpture.

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It's located near Gateshead, Tyne & Wear in NE England. Vital statistics follow:

Completed in 1998, it is a steel sculpture of an angel, 20 metres (66 ft) tall, with wings measuring 54 metres (177 ft) across.
The wings do not stand straight sideways, but are angled 3.5 degrees forward; Gormley did this to create "a sense of embrace".

Due to its exposed location, the sculpture was built to withstand winds of over 100 mph (160 km/h).
Thus, foundations containing 600 tonnes (590 long tons; 660 short tons) of concrete anchor the sculpture to rock 70 feet (21 m) below.
The sculpture was built at Hartlepool Steel Fabrications Ltd using COR-TEN weather-resistant steel.
It was made in three parts—with the body weighing 100 tonnes (98 long tons; 110 short tons) and two wings weighing 50 tonnes (49 long tons; 55 short tons) each—then brought to its site by road.
The components were transported in convoy—the body on a 48-wheel trailer—from their construction site in Hartlepool, up the A19 road to the installation site 28 miles (45 km) away; the nighttime journey took five hours and attracted large crowds.

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The wings do not stand straight sideways, but are angled 3.5 degrees forward; Gormley did this to create "a sense of embrace".

Embrace, yeah that's the ticket, c'mere lunch, I wanna embrace you. :3eye: