A collection of rusting steel blocks piled up to look like a man, this 8-bit computer graphic of a statue is another of Antony Gormley’s human expressions.
Built up of blocks within a frame of Antony Gormley’s own body, the artist says that it is “evoking the block of the urban grid”, although to my mind it looks more like an early 1980s computer graphic.
He also said at its unveiling in 2007 that it’s “a work that interacts with the daily life of the street” — which as an inanimate object it fails to interact with anything. Unless the pigeons have been having discreet liaisons with it?
It does seem a bit out of place though, just plonked on the spot without any sort of base plinth or paving decoration. A holding sculpture waiting for the permanent version to arrive.
The sculpture, Resolution is on Shoe Lane, and was put here as part of a City of London plan to improve the local area.
Walked past “him” yesterday and glad to report he’s following HMG guidelines and wearing a mask 😷
Thankfully this one’s of necessity more abstract and sturdy than Mr. Gormley’s other shore-littering drowning men and “don’t jump!” roof ledge facsimiles of himself.
Not a fan of this trend of self-referencing by several artists of late. Equally amazed that no copy-cat accidents have resulted from the siting of them. Maybe lockdown has something to do with it.
Each to their own.
A Curmudgeon, esq.