The Art Newspaper

Invasion of the bodywatchers

By The Art Newspaper. From In The Frame
Published online: 04 March 2010

It’s a bird, it’s a plane… no, it’s Antony Gormley, times 31. New York’s skyline is about to be invaded by the same lifesize bronze casts of the British artist that caused no little alarm when they were installed atop rooftops all around London’s South Bank in 2007. Although "Event Horizon", the NYC Redux version, is not scheduled to go live until 26 March, a few of Gormley’s sentinels will be installed early on 10 March around the Madison Square park area, with a view to eventually inhabiting vertiginous vantage points and eye-popping eyries high above street level, on the Flatiron and Empire State buildings among others. A similar dry-run in London precipitated numerous calls to the emergency services with panicked members of the public believing these men to be on the verge of jumping from their precipitous perches. Gormley wants these daredevils to live on the edge, saying that “My intention is to get the sculptures as close to the edge of the buildings as possible.” Look up—just don’t look down.