Rodgers Gormley Gallery

Rodgers Gormley Gallery

AGWA’s acquisitions Big Pluck 2 2016, and Big Yield 2015, are outstanding examples of Gormley’s recent practice.

Composed from scans of his body scaled up one-and-a-half times, the works are part of his wider Big Beamers series. According to Gormley’s website, the series uses “the construction principles of architecture to reconsider the body in space and as space”. The arrangement of steel beams fills out the internal form of Gormley’s body, while intentional voids allow space to permeate it. Like buildings, each figure has its own particular physical expression. Big Pluck 2 – which extends upward as if pulled up by an unseen force – is intended to be heroic; in contrast, the curled over form of Big Yield appears mournful or struggling in nature. The geometric forms invite viewers to move around them, to experience them fully in relation to the space in which they are situated.

It was Gormley’s intention to signal in the works from this series that everybody can be a sculpture; that we become sculptures as we move our masses around, as our limbs and torsos form different patterns, different spaces, different places in the world. By placing the works at the entrance to the Gallery, we signify that art is not only for everybody, but is made by everybody as well.

Big Pluck 2 2016, and Big Yield 2015, were purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation with funds donated by John Rodgers, in recognition of the contribution by his father Kurt Rodgers to the arts and to the Gallery where he was a Board Member from 1960 to 1970.

 

Related Information

Ongoing
FREE

Share

@artgallerywa
#artgallerywa
#myagwamoment

About the artist

 

Born in London in 1950, Gormley’s work since the late 1970s/early 1980s has brought together the traditions of figurative and site-specific sculpture. Often beginning with a mould or scan of his own body, Gormley explores the relation of the human body to space and time. The human body is not just a physical entity; it is an internal space of infinite imagination and potential. It is a place where experiences are collected, where connections with the world are formed.

Gormley’s works are instantly recognisable, and can be found in galleries as well as in urban and natural settings. Iconic works include Inside Australia 2003, an expansive outdoor installation of 51 figures derived from laser scans of residents of Menzies, WA on Lake Ballard and Angel of the North 1998, a 20m high, 54m wide copper and steel sculpture which sits atop a hill alongside the A1 motorway in Gateshead, northern England.

 

Gormley in Focus

 

Visit the Gormley in focus display in the Gallery linkway. Here you will learn more about this acclaimed artist through video works, including interviews with the artist, imagery and words. There is also an example of one of the sculptures from Inside Australia for visitors to admire.

Inside Australia is owned by the State of Western Australia and is overseen by the Lake Ballard Association and the Art Gallery of Western Australia. To arrange a visit to the site please refer to the following website: lakeballard.com and goldfieldstourism.au

On Saturday 27 August, the Gallery is open 10am-3pm only as we prepare for the AGWA Foundation Gala supporting women in the arts. Some exhibition access will be disrupted with two Tracks We Share ground floor galleries closed. AGWA Rooftop bar will be closed, reopening at 2pm Sunday. Details