There is a saying that when God opens closes one door, he opens another. In London this autumn when Antony Gormley closes one exhibition (at the Royal Academy), he opens another (at the nearby White Cube Gallery).
The White Cube exhibition is a natural conclusion for visitors to the Royal Academy for the three short weeks when the two exhibitions run together, with works on show predominantly from 2019 and a few from 2018.
Upstairs four serious and sombre 1.5 times lifesize pixilated figures stand against the wall. No, they are not being antisocial, or playing hide and seek, they are composed of loose cast-iron blocks which are only held together by gravity and the support of the wall. Gormley describes them as ‘reverse caryatids’ akin to the architectural features of Ancient Greece, but facing in rather than out and needing support rather than giving it.
Downstairs is a more relaxed world of rust-coloured pixelated cast-iron figures apparently at play, enjoying life, doing acrobatic exercises, created from a multiplicity of blocks. positioned in front of a third series of works, swirling images as if in outer space.
