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Works  News Latest Field coming home
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ONE of Antony Gormley’s most breathtaking works of arts is returning home to St Helens for the first time.
Field for the British Isles, a collection of 40,000 terracotta army clay figurines, will be displayed in the town this summer. The individual figures which range between 8-16cm high were handmade out of the town’s famous Ibstock clay bricks. Some stand out from the crowd because of their size and character, while others are greyer than the earthy reds of the majority.
They were made back in 1993 by more than 100 residents aged seven to 70 at Sutton Manor High School.
Their only instructions were to make the figures between set heights, with a head in proportion to the body and deep eyes.
Gormley described the Field as “25 tons of clay energised by fire, sensitised by touch and made conscious by being given eyes...a field of gazes that looks at the observer making him or her its subject.” A team of volunteers will spend four days installing the Field in a specially constructed space within St Helens College’s foyer in the town.
The internationally-renowned artwork is part of a series of “Field” installations by Gormley around the world. In 1994 the artist – also responsible for Another Place on Crosby beach – was awarded the Turner Prize for Field, and is perhaps best-known for his large outdoor sculpture Angel of the North.
Tate Liverpool has been a previous venue for Field but it has never been shown in its place of origin. The installation will sit as a centrepiece in the borough’s contribution to the Capital of Culture celebrations.
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