Gormley’s “Blind Light” Opens at the Haywood Gallery

For the last 25 years, Antony Gormley has made a name for himself in the British Art World by making casts of his own body and displaying them. It was amusing for a bit but not now. Unless he was to be the successor to the rather tedious Dame Elisabeth Frink, he needed to do something new. With “Blinding Light” which opens officially on Friday at the Haywood Gallery, he may have found a new path to continued popularity.

The installation is a big box made out of glass filled with water vapor and illuminated by fluorescent lights. The result is an enclosed pea-soup fog that lacks the toxicity of the fogs London used to have before smokeless fuels. The worst thing that can happen to a visitor to the exhibit (one can’t really say viewer) is the loss of the crease in one’s trousers.

This isn’t the highest of high brow art. Rather, it is an interactive piece (Gods, isn’t there another, less-abused adjective for it!). One enters the box and tries to find one’s way around. Here Mr. Gormley stands art on its head because the piece isn’t about seeing; it is about not seeing. The sensation of being lost because one cannot see (despite being in a box inside a room in the Heywood Gallery) can either be exhilarating or panic-inducing.

Richard Dorment of the Telegraph wrote, “There is also a beautiful moment when another person’s body suddenly becomes visible or partially visible as he or she emerges from the mist. At the simplest level, then, Blind Light is London’s latest art-fun thing to do.” Well, it beats watching David Blain starving (or maybe it doesn’t were Mr. Blain to see the thing through to the end).

Sadly, while the critics may be grateful for a piece that isn’t yet another cast of Mr. Gormley’s entirely average form, “Blind Light” has all the staying power of a carnival House of Mirrors. It amuses for a few moments, but after that, one starts to wonder whether it was worth the price of admission. The Kensington Review recommends viewing it on Monday, when the Haywood offers half-price admission.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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