PHIL110
As part of PHIL110: Philosophy and the Arts, students were asked to
demonstrate their analysis and argumentation skills by reflecting on artworks
or artists of their own choice, with reference to contemporary philosophical
accounts of art and aesthetics. Dr Nikos Gkogkas was impressed by the
work of first-year BA Philosophy student, Vincent Barber-Stones.
s on Antony Gormley’s Another Place
industry’ and ‘this exposure to the elements’
(Gormley, 2015). Individually and collectively,
the figures possess a heavy presence on
the foreshore. Each body weighs in excess
of 600kg, but the emotion they convey is far
more significant to the success of the work.
The work is a comment on mankind’s
relationship with nature. Throughout
the history of our race we have found
ourselves staring out at the sea, either in
quiet contemplation or in subdued awe of
nature’s power and magnitude. Although
Gormley states that “this was no exercise in
romantic escapism”, I felt close to the everchanging battle between the natural planet
and human industry (Gormley, 1995).
Standing on the beach on a tempestuous,
miserable winter’s afternoon, I was envious
that these figures could inhabit such a
wild environment, whilst at the same time
contented that I would not have to endure
the wrath of nature indefinitely as they do.
Exhibited in a coastal landscape, the
sculptures express a loneliness that
is understood by the standard viewer.
Despite being surrounded by 99 identical
counterparts, each model is in perfect
solitude, acknowledging only the ebb
and flow of the sea stretching out to the
horizon. Many viewers, like myself, may
consider the idea of isolation amongst
numbers as something commonplace, for
example, such as that on a daily commute.
Although the ‘Another Place’ figures are
identical casts of the artist, they possess
a universality. Gormley himself emphasises
this point: “It is no hero, no ideal, just the
industrially reproduced body of a middleaged man trying to remain standing and
trying to breathe, facing a horizon busy with
ships moving materials and manufactured
things around the planet” (Gormley, 2016).
My experience of ‘Another Place’ allowed
me to reflect on the evolution of our
relationship with nature. Despite still feeling
an excitement when joining the sculptures
in observing the raw, natural, wild of the
sea, I could not help but notice the impact of
human industry on the landscape. Gormley
was fully aware that the site carried this
quality: “I was very struck from the moment
I first got there by the robustness of the
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