Antony Gormley
Monday 7 May 2007 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
ANTONY GORMLEY
Sculptor Antony Gormley has permanently colonised a beach outside Liverpool and the hills outside Newcastle with figures made in his image.
And now the creator of the Angel of the North is about to annex the South Bank of the Thames in London with a colony of 31 more figures taken from his form.
In a special programme-length interview on Night Waves, Philip Dodd talks to Britain's best known sculptor about why he returns to his own body again and again in the many works that can now be seen all over the world.
Antony Gormley reveals how his encasing himself in plaster to make these figures is as much to do with his psychological needs as his art.
Philip travels to the artist's huge studio, recently built from scratch, which Gormley describes as half way between a prison and an industrial unit. Big enough to accommodate articulated lorries and made out of 120 tons of steel, he built it so that there is now no longer any excuse not to create any sculpture he can imagine.
Join Philip Dodd as he is shown around for Night Waves, this Bank Holiday Monday at 9.45, on BBC Radio 3.
Event Horizon by Anthony Gormley
Event Horizon by Anthony Gormley, photograph by Kieron McCarron 
