Antony Gormley on How Sculpture Shapes the World
Antony Gormley is probably the UK’s best known sculptor, famous for his Angel of the North in Gateshead and for the life-sized casts of his naked body that have appeared in works such as Another Place on Crosby Beach. On January 11 he comes to Intelligence Squared to give an illustrated talk on his new book, Shaping the World: Sculpture from Prehistory to Now, in which he argues that sculpture is more than just an art form – it is a way of physical thinking that can change the way people feel and make them encounter the world around them in a completely different way.
Drawing on examples from all over the world, dating from thousands of years ago right up to the present, Gormley will explain how sculpture has been practised by every culture in the world. The first surviving shaped stones may even predate the advent of language. In conversation with cultural historian Shahidha Bari, Gormley will take us on a visual journey that begins with the Venus of Hohle Fels, the oldest depiction of a human being, through Rodin’s The Kiss, to Adrián Villar Rojas’ Today We Reboot the Planet. Join us as he explores the universal human drive to form stone, clay, wood and metal into shapes and tackle the questions: What is sculpture? What is humanity?
Sir Antony Gormley
Distinguished British artist and sculptor
Distinguished British artist and sculptor. He won the Turner Prize in 1994 and has been a Royal Academician since 2003. Gormley is one of the most critically respected artists working internationally, with works that have universal resonance.
Shahidha Bari
Writer, academic and broadcaster
Professor of Fashion Cultures and Histories at London College of Fashion at the University of the Arts London, and a Fellow of the Forum for Philosophy at the London School of Economics. She is a regular presenter of the BBC Radio 3's Arts and Ideas programme, Free Thinking, and an occasional presenter of BBC Radio 4's Front Row and Saturday Review. She contributes to Aeon, The Financial Times, Frieze art magazine, The Guardian, The Observer, The Times Literary Supplement and other publications.
