Antony Gormley-Brick Man
Immediate Response
My immediate thought when looking at this sculpture is that the man is silent, gagged. He has no mouth–or face–to speak of, leaving him mute and, in my mind, trapped. I feel almost like I, myself, cannot breathe while observing this piece and a slight claustrophobia makes the piece intense for me. The fact that the sculpture is in the shape of a person makes me feel like there must be a person encased within–a Han Solo, though I know that that is not the case. While this piece makes me, in a way, fearful, I’m drawn to it in the hope that I might divine what this Brick Man is thinking.
Objective Description
The sculpture stands on a short pedestal and is the shape of a male human figure, 6 ft tall. The statue is made entirely of red brick that is held together with mortar. It stands straight and upright, like a soldier at attention, his arms at his sides, legs together, feet facing frontward, and staring straight ahead. There is no face or detail besides a strong jawline and pointed chin; the sculpture has the blank expression of a mannequin.
Technical Decisions
Construction and craftspersonship
Antony Gormley tends to make a lot of human figure sculptures out of hard, inorganic materials. He has a larger meaning behind this but I will discuss that later. Gormley used red brick, a classic building material, and mortar to form this piece. I imagine the most likely process was to make a rectangular prism out of the materials before carving away pieces in a negative method in order to form the human figure.
Context
This piece has quite the backstory. Apparently, Gormley originally created this work as a proposed municipal statue for Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. He planned for the statue to stand 100 ft tall, overlooking the city. Unfortunately, the city was uninterested and voted to use a different proposal instead. This history coloured my interpretation of the sculpture with a feeling of pity, pity for the poor statue who was rejected as quickly as he was brought into existence. As he stands forlornly in the corner of the gallery I hope he is not lonely.
The Work in the World
For me, I recognize and connect both the human form and the brick and mortar of this sculpture with the outside world. It reminds me of a city, people and buildings, all rolled into one piece of art. This simple figure looks as if he walked through a wall and came out the other side covered in brick. The fact that the artist chose red brick specifically makes me think of colonial-era houses, which makes me wonder how much time this Brick Man will watch pass by as he remains unchanged.
The Story it Tells
The meaning of this piece of art is much larger than a single sculpture. While choosing one of his works, I noticed that Antony Gormley has made quite a few sculptures depicting the human figure. What stands out to me about this one is that it is one of the few that actually exist in a gallery, most others exist out in nature in one way or another. The connection between all of these pieces is important because they are all made out of hard, unforgiving, inorganic material which, to me, makes me feel like Gormley is trying to represent a body of life made from things that are unliving. He brings forth a person shape that may naturally evoke feelings of kinship in people but he creates this “being” without any possibility of life. What’s most interesting to me is that by setting these sculptures out in nature he does give them life, in a way. They can spend their days enjoying mountain views and beach sunsets. Which leads me to why I feel so sad for this Brick Man, who has to spend his existence within the confines of an art gallery.