Antony Gormley at Bangkok Art Biennale

Artist Antony Gormley has been invited to participate in the third edition of Bangkok Art Biennale. Specially created for the event, his works respond to the theme of CHAOS : CALM, which reflects the unpredictable conditions that the world has endured over the past few years, from the COVID-19 pandemic to climate change and socio-political unrest.

Widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space, British artist Antony Gormley’s work has developed the potential of sculpture since the 1960s. Through a critical engagement with both his own body and those of others, he confronts fundamental questions of where human beings stand in relation to nature and the cosmos. 

Two site-specific sculptures by Gormley will be exhibited at the courtyard of Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimon Mangkhalaram Rajwaramahawihan (Wat Pho, Temple of the Reclining Buddha). Reflecting the artist’s perception of his works as instruments for mindfulness, as well as his deep interest in Buddhism and Jainism, the sculptures stand in their own temple precincts. CONNECT (2022) presents the body as a zone of emergent connectivity with space and light while CONTAIN (2022) conceptualises the body as the material context of consciousness. Together, these two works identify the ground of human experience and our relationship to space, mass and energy. Their placement within Sino-Siamese temples, featuring rows of Buddha images depicting various mudras, echoes the Buddhist teaching of impermanence.