Student Research Papers + Multi Media Presentations Published

  Below are your colleagues' multi media presentations and their full papers.  This blog page allows for you to make comments within each of them.
  Please do so on 4 students' works, minimum.

    Link to PPT here > Noel Evelyn Madden: MIA TAVONATTI PPT 03.24.2020

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   Link to PPT here >  Rachel McAndrew > DAMIAN ORTEGA PPT 03.30.2020

Professor Jen Pepper

SA-132 Structuring Human Space

24 March 2020

Damián Ortega

Damián Ortega is an award-winning sculptor who was born in 1967 in Mexico City, Mexico. He is 53 years of age this year and is still living and working in Mexico City, staying true to his Mexican nationality. Ortega did not study anywhere for a formal art education, but he was very influenced by a few particular artists. Ortega was at the age of sixteen when he decided to drop out of his school to start his art career (Widewalls). He became a political cartoonist that focused on current problems in Mexico, like their poor economy after an earthquake. Gabriel Orozco influenced Damián Ortega’s work because he held a course specialized in experimental art (Der). Another influencer for Ortega was Diego Rivera but he soon became even more interested in a different artist by the name of Marcel Duchamp, a conceptual and surrealist artist. 

Ortega was not always in Mexico. Ortega lived in Berlin for seven years of his life and worked on his art there. His connection with Berlin allowed him to exhibit his work there, so he has had work exhibited in Berlin, Mexico, London and the United States. In a lot of his works and installations, Ortega likes to use recycled items and reusable objects to aid him in the meanings of his works. Reusing things like glass bottles helps him translate his idea of marketing and realization of the heavy use and consumption of Americanization and American products (Schumacher). He also does a lot of experimental projects working with things like ice and molten metal (Widewalls). 

First Deconstruction

Ortega’s piece called Cosmic Thing, figure one, was made in 2002 and is one of his most well-known works. His medium is very rare in which he used an old 1983, stainless steel Volkswagen Beetle that he disassembled and created artwork from. After the car was disassembled, the pieces of the Beetle were strung from the ceiling by many individual wires. He also added a lot of space between each car part to show depth and create almost a floating feeling. The entire piece as a whole measures to be 285 x 276 x 296 inches. It is a very large piece even though it is made from a life-sized, real car, due to the spaces in between the car parts that Ortega uses as emphasis on the piece as a whole to obtain more used space and activation. 

The most prominent elements in this piece are space, and form. Space is used and activated very well in this piece because the car is not just stuck together and placed in the middle of the floor. It is deconstructed, and reconstructed to look like it is exploding, like a paused moment in time during a car explosion. The space in between the parts create a floating feeling that activates more space than a regularly constructed car. If you look at it from different views, it looks like different floating pieces of a car. Looking at it straight on, it looks just like a car, but the activated space allows for more imagination for the viewers, like what is going on? Are the car pieces exploding? Or are the car pieces being brought together? The form of the car parts create something that looks like a cloud of car parts. Form is very activated in this piece because there are many forms within the piece that create one form, like a cloud made of car parts. 

The principals of design that are most prominent in Cosmic Thing are balance and unity. Balance is very dominant in this piece because the car parts are symmetrical. The parts are not only symmetrical in being the same parts on each side, but they are also symmetrical in how they are placed. If you took a picture from the front, back, top, or bottom, you could fold the picture in half and have all of the car parts line up with each other. Showing hoe carefully placed each object is hung. The balance in the piece is so prominent, that it shows structure and equal weight. Unity is also very important in this piece because the unity of all the car pieces create one idea in the audience’s mind. Whether it is an exploding car or a forming car, if the audience knows what a car is then they know that it is a car no matter what because of the unity of the pieces. If the car parts were all thrown on the ground then it would be a lot harder to distinguish what it is. But the unity of all the parts creating a full car, allow a developed theme of unity with parts and pieces. 

Second Deconstruction

Ortega’s second piece that will be discussed is Controller of the Universe. He constructed the piece in 2007 and created it out of found tools and wire. The found tools include axes, saws, hammers, ice picks, crowbars and many other tools of construction, and destruction. All of the tools appear to be pointing inward, creating a sense of explosion, like his other piece Cosmic Thing. It also appears to be frozen in place, like a frozen moment in time, similar to the Volkswagen he used for his other project. The use of hand tools like these create a sense of construction and destruction. It gives off an energy like something is trying to be changed, with the use of tools, things can be changed to either form or deconstruct something different. All of the tools are also put in place to point inwards, which leads people to think that it is a self-projected work by Ortega. He could be showing that he wants to change something within himself, or he is creating a message to his readers that they need to change themselves. Another thing that creates the idea of creating and deconstructing things is the title, Controller of the Universe. The tools in the piece are pointing to something that is centralized, in the middle of the piece. So, is the “controller of the universe” the one that needs to be changed? Is the “controller of the universe” humanity? 

Two of the most prominent elements of design in this piece are space and form. The element of space is used very dominantly because the objects are suspended in the air at a certain angle. The space created in the piece is very similar to the space used with Cosmic Thing. The tools are carefully spaced apart in a way that shows isolation, but all the space in the piece as a whole is what brings it all together. Each tool contains its own volume and space, correlating to the negative space around it. The spaces between in tool are also very narrow, causing it to form the idea of a relationship between each tool used in Ortega’s work. If space was not a prominent element of design, then the tools would be overlapping and creating a higher work that gives off a claustrophobic feeling and potentially creates an idea that is more centralized in one subject. Form is also a very dominant element of design in this piece because it correlates with the use of space. The way that the tools are placed, it almost creates a sphere like form with all the activation that it has. The look of the piece is also very aesthetic, which relates to the three-dimensional shape, from. The aesthetic is very symmetrical and pleasing to the eye, making it an imaginative piece with its space, and also a more grounded piece with its repetition of form and symmetry. 

The two most dominant principals of design in this piece are balance and emphasis. Balance is a prominent principal in Ortega’s Controller of the Universe because the tools are carefully placed to be a certain distance apart. Everything is perfectly balanced and even symmetrical. Even though the tools are not perfectly symmetrical on each side of the piece, there is still a balance between the tools with the number of objects and just looking at the piece from afar. The work is so balanced, that if you were to look at it from a far, it would look like a perfect, fuzzy sphere. There is also a balance between the objects pointing outwards and objects pointing inwards. There are many types of balance in this piece but there is also a lot of emphasis. The idea behind the emphasis in this piece, is that there is a lot of emphasis, but it is on something that is no present in the piece. All of the tools that are lined up with something in the middle, show that there is something being emphasized in the middle of the gathering. All of the tools line up with something and it is believed to have to do with something from the title or the work. Controller of the Universe. The emphasis is on the ‘controller of the universe,’ and whoever or whatever the controller is, they are personal to the artist because the piece is very centralized, and it is all pointed inward. The emphasis is very unique in this piece because usually emphasis makes something really pop out to the audience. But in this case, the emphasis is on something that is not actually there in person. Which makes the piece more unique and gets the audience thinking even more about what the piece could be about. 

Damián Ortega has a lot of beautiful works that make his audience stop and think. Cosmic Thing and Controller of the Universe are only two of Ortega’s works that I found incredible interest in. His use of materials and ideas are a work of beauty and the passion that he puts into his work is very credible and shown throughout each of his pieces. His hard life growing up and then becoming an artist is a truly remarkable story and I really hope more and more people realize what art is. It isn’t just a splash of color or a scribble on a piece of paper. For people like Damián Ortega and me, art is how we show love, happiness, hate, yearning, and practically anything else that we feel. Ortega’s works shows. A lot of emotion and ideas, but he likes to keep them a little quiet, so he buries some ideas into his pieces that are hard to pick out. Just like his emphasis on the controller of the universe in Controller of the Universe. Art can be blunt, and art can be secretive, and Damián Ortega does great at both styles. 

Works Cited

“Damian Ortega.” Widewalls, 29 July 2013, www.widewalls.ch/artist/damian-ortega/. 

“Der Sturm Digitized.” Guggenheim, 11 June 2013, www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/damian-ortega. 

Schumacher, Rachel. “5 Fascinating Facts About Mexican Artist Damián Ortega.” Culture Trip, The Culture Trip, 18 Feb. 2015, theculturetrip.com/north-america/mexico/articles/dami-n-ortega-top-5-facts-on-mexico-s-wittiest-artist/.

Figure One 

Damián Ortega, Cosmic Thing, 2002, 285 x 276 x 296 inches, wire and a stainless steel volkswagenhttps://publicdelivery.org/damian-ortega-cosmic-thing/ 

 

Figure Two

Damián Ortega,  Controller of the Universe, 2007, 285 x 406 x 455 centimeters, wire and found tools 

https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/35460745/----------------------------------------------------------

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   Lin to PPT here > Cortney Reynolds > PAIGE BRADLEY PPT 03.30.2020
    SA 132

Cortney Reynolds

Prof. Pepper

3/23/2020

Paige Bradley, an American sculptor, is quoted to say: “Art is not entertainment. Art is not luxury goods. Art is culture. It is you and me,” (“Biography”). Continuing to develop pieces in the present time, Bradley focuses on issues regarding human experience and dichotomies: “beautiful and ugly, liberated and contained, falling and floating” (“About Paige”). Liberation and Home, although not her most publicly acclaimed work, both effectively create concepts regarding humanity and life that Bradley seeks to develop within her artwork.

Biography

Bradley was born in Carmel, California in 1974, however, the exact date unknown to the public (“Paige Bradley” Saatchi Art). She knew that from the young age of nine years old that she would grow to be an artist and turned her attention to the “human condition” as a figurative artist (“Biography”). In fact, she “started drawing from the nude model by the age of ten and by fifteen [she] was studying intensely at university campuses during the summer months. Knowing that [she] was naturally a sculptor, at seventeen [she] had cast [her] first bronze sculpture,” (“Paige Bradley” Saatchi Art). Bradley went on to study at Pepperdine University in California before spending a year in Florence, Italy at the Florence Academy of Art; she finished her education at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she learned more about sculpture, painting, and printing in several mediums (“About Paige”). She primarily casts in bronze, which is how much of her work is created, but also incorporates “…painting and charcoals, woodcuts, iron-bonded resin, aluminum, mixed media, or any other material she feels helps communicate her message,” (“Biography”). 

In 1994 and for the next decade, Bradley worked as an apprentice under Richard MacDonald, a renowned sculptor at the time; the following year, she worked as an assistant sculptor on a monument for the Atlanta Olympic Games and because of her work, she was soon inducted to the National Sculpture Society and other clubs which recognized her as an accomplished sculptor (“Paige Bradley” Windsor Fine Art). She has developed her own studio which has moved from California to New York, and finally to London as of 2007 (“Biography”). Paige Bradley draws inspiration from the world around her. As stated on her professional website, “inspiration comes from my connection to the world, my relationships with others, and my relationship with myself. I don’t need to travel the planet or hire dancers to find a muse. My individual journey is inspiration enough,” (“Biography”). Many of the concepts Bradley depicts in her work are derived from dichotomies like connecting and releasing, hiding and emerging, and several others, all of which can be seen on her personal website, which arguably act as inspiration as well (“Biography”). 

Deconstruction #1

Bradley is expressive about the human experience and the triumphs and struggles associated with it, which has inspired many of her current artworks. As seen in figure 1 Liberation is a piece created by Bradley featured within her Fragment collection. Composed of bronze, the work is 22 inches in depth, 9 inches long, and 9 inches wide (Bradley). The date the piece was finished as well as its current location are unknown. The overall form of the piece resembles the two-dimensional plane of a painting or drawing with three-dimensional elements that lift from the base. This composition offers an interesting take on three-dimensional design that differs from the types of sculptures Paige Bradley typically develops, which are majorly human bodies interacting in their space.

Liberation offers a significant amount of real texture in the way that the bronze is casted. The space surrounding the right-of-center hand resembles brushstrokes or waves that lift from the flat surface to create different dimensions within the piece. The hand emerges from this plane with rough textures, unlike that of a natural human fist, gripping a part of wave-like strokes to assert a symbolic dominance over the world’s struggles and defeating them. These brushstroke-like textures add variety to the piece with their differences in depth, direction, and individual texture. These simple variants add interest in the viewing of the sculpture by creating a diversified platform that inflicts a sense of struggle and tension, rather than a symmetrical and flat plane that would not align with the theme presented. The flowing movement is abstract in nature with these organic forms, rather than calculated, perfectly symmetrical smudges which guide the viewer’s eyes around the surface in a relaying fashion, from the natural curve of one stroke to the one adjacent. The viewer’s eyes will soon be guided to the nearly central fist, creating a focal point that is at the highest point of depth as indicated by the highlights reflecting of the bronze. 

The sculpture repeats the brushstroke-like shapes of varying sizes and directions in the space allotted around the fist in a way to create a flowing movement that draws the eye to the off-center hand after shifting between the numerous textures developed. This rhythm creates a cohesiveness throughout the piece in order to tie all elements together and develop a successful theme apparent to the viewer. 

Liberation is a piece that effectively communicates the message of regaining freedom through Bradley’s precision in incorporating variation, texture, movement, and rhythm in its unique form.

Deconstruction #2

Much of the human condition relates to how we interact with others and ourselves. As a part of her Couples collection, the piece Home, as displayed in figure 2, is created from bronze and features a couple laying together in an upright position with a spiraling structure surrounding them. The piece stands with dimensions of 38 inches wide, 20 inches in depth, and 32 inches tall (Bradley). The date Home was finished as well as its current location are unknown. 

Unlike Liberation, this work features differences in color throughout the piece, including a true bronze hue for the human figures and a silver-toned spiral space encompassing them. These colors as well as the forms themselves create an intriguing contrast throughout the piece, highlighting the separation of the two major pieces of the sculpture, the two bodies and the spiraling form. The parallels between the simple spiral shape and its interaction with the complex human bodies develops contrast in form. The undoubtedly organic form of the spiral encasing human figures which in nature are organically shaped as well appear far more structured and geometric due to this juxtaposition and the intricate attention to detail. The objective of these contrasts is to emphasize different elements throughout the piece. 

The spiral itself adds an element of movement to the piece that would not have been present without it, which would undoubtedly impact the overall success of the sculpture. The shape drags the eyes of the viewer from the left tip inward to the human figures from toe to head. Without it, the engagement would ultimately be lost; the viewer would simply see a couple laying together, unsure of where to look. This movement also plays with the asymmetrical balance established by the contrasting objects of the sculpture. The sculpture is significantly heavier on the right side than it is the left in both the spiral and he figures themselves if split perfectly down the center widthwise. The entire right side, both the bodies and spiral, also shifts to an upright position, whereas the left has a more horizontal field of view. The heavier side frames around the upper halves and faces of the couple, creating a center of focus. The tail end of the spiral on the left drags farther out horizontally past the two figures in order to add more weight to assist in creating an equilibrium. This sculpture is organic in nature, as mentioned previously, and the negative space established is no exception to this unstated rule in reference to Home. Pockets of negative space that would not have otherwise been present shine through the bronze forms with interesting organic integrity if the spiral had been omitted from the piece.  This negative space created from the spiral allows only certain areas of the couple to be viewed no matter the angle; similarly, the positive space of the spiral hides segments of the bodies. This observation recognizes that the spiral makes it impossible to ever see the entire couple as long as it remains as part of the piece, and Bradley takes complete control over her work by forcing the viewer to interact with Home and move within its space to see its full form.

In Home, Bradley successfully utilizes properties of movement, balance, space, and contrast in order to create a visual effective and stimulating masterpiece that displays her vision of home.

Summary

Inspiration and themes enrooted into the work of Paige Bradley are apparent to the viewer through her utilization of the elements and principles of art and the strategies in which they were implemented. These common details visible throughout all her pieces develops a signature style. Inspiration and meaning can be directly drawn from the dichotomies and themes that Bradley presents. 

 Works Cited

n.a. “About Paige.” Artistaday.com, 26 June 2011, www.artistaday.com/?p=10390%5C.

n.a. “Biography.” Paige Bradley, paigebradley.com/biography-of-the-artist.php.

n.a. “Paige Bradley.” Saatchi Art, www.saatchiart.com/paigebradley.

n.a. “Paige Bradley.” Windsor Fine Art, www.windsorfineart.com/paige-bradley-1.

Figure 1

Paige Bradley

Liberation 

Fragment Collection

Unknown date

Bronze casting

22” depth x 9” width x 9” height

paigebradley.com/biography-of-the-artist.php

Figure 2 

Home

Couples Collection

Unknown date

Bronze casting

38” width x 20” depth x 32” height

paigebradley.com/biography-of-the-artist.php

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Lynda Benglis

Lynda Benglis, born in 1941 in Lake Charles Louisiana is considered the pioneer of abstraction in the three-dimensional form. She graduated from Newcomb College in the year 1964 with a bachelor’s in the Fine Arts and later would earn an honorary doctorate in 2000 from the Kansas City Art Institute (“Lynda Benglis”). Among her academic achievements, she has also won quite a few rewards, such as the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1975 and the National Endowment for the Arts in 1979 and 1990. Benglis has also been in many art shows and museums throughout her time as an artist and has had her art displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Throughout her artwork, Benglis tries to convey her beliefs and understanding of the world around her as she includes narratives with most of her newer creations in order to help the viewer understand the pieces better. Benglis’s artworks all have a commonality in the unexpected materials that she uses in order to create them. These materials include, but are not limited to, glitter, lead, polyurethane, and gold leaf. Benglis also tries to incorporate different cultures in her works and translates ancient symbols into the modern era to help a viewer understand the past.

Power Tower I (Image 1) is sculpture than Benglis displayed in 2019 made of White Tombasil and Bronze. This sculpture activates the space around it well as incorporates space, texture, movement, and balance. The sculpture allows the viewer to look to what is on the other side of it as it appears to be melting into the floor that it is placed upon. This is a great example of how Benglis activated the pace of her artwork and how the shape of the sculpture changes depending on which angle you are looking at, as three-dimensional forms should. Power Tower I also have actual texture in its material as you can see the indentations and imperfections throughout the piece, which helps give the suggestion that even the powerful have flaws. Movement and Balance are the final principals of design that are worth mentioning in this piece as Benglis as even though the sculpture appears to be melting and that it could fall over or collapse upon itself at any given moment it holds itself together perfectly. No matter the angle you look at it will still appear to be the piece but there will be something new at that angel to explore. This sculpture causes the viewer to move and find new areas to search without repetition and, thanks to it’s a reflective surface, it interacts with the area around it and causes reflections that just add to the piece as a whole. If Power Tower I was surrounded by artwork that could be reflected in it will only add to the sculpture and take nothing away from it.

Compared to an earlier piece that she created in 1971, Phantom (Image 2), another sculpture of hers that is made with polyurethane foam with phosphorescent pigments, the piece actively incorporates space, color, texture, and balance. This sculpture is illuminated in the dark and almost appears to be floating at some angles which explains the name Phantom. The sculpture itself is three different pieces of the material that have been shaped how Benglis wished to shape them and uses the space between them effectively.  The eerie green glow the sculpture has does wonders to help convey the title it holds as any cartoons and shows convey ghosts with that same light this holds. While Power Tower I was completely silver and stayed that way no matter it has lighting situation, Phantom, goes from pure white to luminist green, a color that holds the piece together once the lights are out. The texture the sculpture contains gives the impression of sheets that people use in costumes in order to dress up as a ghost, spirit or phantom though it also could be wax, or something similar, melting and revealing an invisible figure beneath it. Finally, balance plays the final role in this sculpture as one side is not heavier than the other. The spacing of the three pieces helps with the balance as not one side is closer or farther from the middle section than the other.

After exploring both works that Lynda Benglis created it is easy to see why she won those art awards and why she is considered the pioneer of abstraction in the three-dimensional form. She is truly ahead of her time and continues to amaze the art world with her knowledge of the elements and principals of design with each new piece she creates. Power Tower I and Phantom are only two of the multiple creations she has made that contribute to this.

Work Cited

Exhibit-E.com. “Lynda Benglis - Artists - Cheim Read.” Cheim & Read, 

www.cheimread.com/artists/lynda-benglis.

“Lynda Benglis.” Art21, art21.org/artist/lynda-benglis/.

Lynda Benglis, Power Tower I, 2019 Sculpture, White Tombasil 89 x 72 x 64 in. bronze https://d32dm0rphc51dk.cloudfront.net/nRA5md_m9ZamaWmYJgHTOw/large.jpg

(Image 1)

Lynda Benglis Phantom, 1971  polyurethane foam with phosphorescent pigments 2.4 × 10.6 × 2.4 m https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef015434411869970c-600wi 

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Emily Cone

Prof. Jen Pepper

Structuring Human Space SA-132

24 March 2020

Antony Gormley

Antony Gormley is a British sculptor born August 30th, 1950 in London, England (Kuiper). He is well known for his installations and public sculptures that portray the human form. Gormley’s work, created often by casts of his own body, explores and studies the way the human body relates to space. His art poses questions of how our physical human existence interacts with the space around us. Gormley has said that he’s “never been interested in making statues, but [he has] been interested in asking what is the nature of the space a human being inhabits.” (Antony) This idea that inspires his artwork aligns perfectly with the purpose of our class, Structuring Human Space, because both emphasize the connection between the human body and the space it touches.

Gormley has studied at a variety of colleges and universities throughout his life. These include Trinity College Cambridge from 1968-1971, where he obtained degrees in art history, archaeology, and anthropology, the Central School of Arts and Crafts, Goldsmiths College, and the Slade School of Fine Art where he studied later in the 1970s (Kuiper). Following his many years of education, he created art that would eventually be displayed across the UK and all around the world. Gormley has also received many awards and honors throughout his career, including the South Bank Prize for Visual Art in 1999, the Bernhard Heiliger Award for Sculpture in 2007, the Obayashi Prize in 2012, the Praemium Imperiale in 2013, and many more (Biography). Most notably, however, was the Turner Prize he was awarded in 1994 for his sculptural installation, Testing a World View (Turner). This installation is going to be the first work of Gormley’s that I base my deconstructive analysis on. 

Analysis #1

Testing a World View (figures 1 and 2) is a 1993 installation by Antony Gormley that displays five identical iron casts of his own body in different positions around a room. Each figure is 112 x 48.5 x 107 centimeters (Testing). 

Form is one of the most prominent elements of design that appears in Gormley’s installation. The piece consists of five three-dimensional sculptures that take the form of the artist’s body. There are many important aspects of the form that contribute to the meaning of the whole work. For instance, the figures being life-sized and realistic looking is significant. This gives the piece a more personal feel because the viewer can perceive the five figures as real human beings, rather than something that isn’t real and that we can’t relate to. Another significant aspect of the form is that the figures are bent at 90-degree angles. These angles match the geometry of the room, which creates harmony within the piece, and they also allow for the space to be activated more than if the figures were not bent at all.

Another one of the most prominent elements of design in Testing a World View is space, which makes sense given that Gormley focuses heavily on the use of space in all of his artwork. The positions he placed each of the figures in are related to the architecture of the area. He uses the right angles of the room and the right angles of the figures to create meaning within the relationship between the sculptures and the space they are occupying. Gormley notes the importance of the five different positions the figures take, stating that each of them “evoke states ranging from ‘hysteria, head-banging, catatonia, to the awakened dead and the about-to-be-beheaded’” (Turner). This information demonstrates how identical objects can display different meanings and inspire different feelings based completely on the way they interact with space. 

Movement is a principle of design that stands out in this work of art, as well. The angles and the positions of the figures allow for the viewer’s eyes to move in a certain path across the room as they observe the installation. Beginning on one side of the room, the eyes start at the head of the figure, trace the angle of the body, and let the direction the statue is facing guide them to the next one. This continues across the room, leading the viewer’s eyes from figure to figure. This movement is created by the use of space within the room because of the way the space visually connects the five figures. There is nothing there that explicitly tells the viewer to look in a certain direction, but the viewer’s eyes are able to pick up on the invisible trail that Gormley included in his installation.

Another prominent principle of design within Testing a World View is balance. The balance, like the movement, is a result of the way the element of space is used in this installation. Each of the figures appear to be spaced apart fairly evenly throughout the room, which helps the piece feel balanced. The positioning of the figures, whether they are on the floor, the ceiling, lying down, or standing up, also provides for balance because all of the space is being occupied, rather than one part of the room being more heavily activated than another. The figures also each fill the space in a different way. This allows for the entirety of the piece to feel like it is sufficiently balanced by the variety Gormley includes while using multiples of the same exact object. 

Analysis #2

Angel of the North (figure 3), made in 1998, is perhaps Antony Gormley’s most well-known and most viewed work of art. It is a 20-meter-tall angel figure with a wingspan of 54 meters. The angel is made of Corten steel and weighs 200 metric tons. It is located in a town called Gateshead in Northeastern England and sits on a hill that overlooks the A1 road. (Gormley, “Angel of the North, 1998”)

Like Testing a World View, form is a prominent element of design found in Angel of the North. The sculpture’s form resembles a human figure with wings, like an angel. This was not Antony Gormley’s first angel, however, as he had previously done sculptures of angels, such as A Case for an Angel I, and he has a certain way of making them look. The wings on the human form are airplane-like rather than bird-like, which is not how most people imagine angels to look. Regardless, the lack of traditionally angelic features does not stop the form from appearing comforting and welcoming. The wide-open wings seem to embrace those who are coming towards it. 

Texture is another element of design that stands out to those who view Angel of the North. It is clear that the sculpture is not smooth but textured with lines that sit on top of the surface and trace the form of the figure. This texture accentuates the form of the angel and gives it more value. A less noticeable but perhaps more important aspect of the texture is simply the material used to create it. For this piece, weathering steel, commonly known as Corten steel, is the medium. Corten steel is often used for outdoor structures as it is resistant to all kinds of weather conditions. It also doesn’t need to be painted because exposure to weather gives it a rusty appearance. Because the work of art is outside, it is important that the texture is functional in addition to being visually pleasing. 

Scale is a very prominent and important principle of design found in this sculpture. The size of the angel is absolutely huge, so it catches people’s eyes. Due to its location, the sculpture has to be larger than life or else people might not notice it at all. The angel stands on a hill in a valley that is a mile and a half wide with an audience that drives past it at about 60 miles per hour (Gormley, “Angel of the North, 1998”). So, being 20 meters tall and 54 meters wide, the Angel of the North is unmissable by those who drive past it on the A1 road. Additionally, the scale of an object can give it a certain feeling. Since this sculpture depicts an angel with outstretched wings, the large scale can give it the feeling that it is watching over and guarding the area.

Another prominent principle of art that appears in Angel of the North is balance. This sculpture is symmetrically balanced on a vertical axis, meaning that the right and left sides of the piece are identical. Both physically and visually, the weight of this sculpture is equally distributed, which can provide the viewers with deeper feelings about the work as a whole. When something is balanced symmetrically, like this angel is, feelings of stability and comfort can be associated with it. The Angel of the North has its balanced wings outstretched to the world, demonstrating its reassuring strength and radiating serenity.

Antony Gormley

Testing a World View

1993

Each figure 112 x 48.5 x 107 cm

Cast Iron

Figure 2

Antony Gormley

Angel of the North

1998

20 m tall x 54 m wide

Corten steel

Figure 3

Works Cited

“Antony Gormley.” Artnet, Artnet Worldwide Corporation, http://www.artnet.com/artists/antony-gormley/. Accessed 22 March 2020.

“Biography.” Antony Gormley, Antony Gormley, http://www.antonygormley.com/biography. Accessed 22 March 2020.

Gormley, Antony. “Angel of the North, 1998.” Antony Gormley, Antony Gormley, http://www.antonygormley.com/projects/item-view/id/211#p0. Accessed 22 March 2020. 

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