Casting the Soul: Antony Gormley's body cases.

Coralie Griffon (1, 2)

1 IETT - Institut d'Etudes Transtextuelles et Transculturelles
2 UJML - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon 3

“Sculpture, in stillness, can transmit what may not be seen .” (Antony Gormley) Antony Gormley has always been interested in the invisible dimension of the body in his body cases as, for example, illustrated by Learning to See III. The sculpture, whose closed eyes seem to be observing the inside of its body, contains air as indicated in the list of materials. The air can symbolise the soul that inhabits the body. Yet Gormley has truly departed from the original division between the body and the soul . According to him, the body and the senses are, as he put it, “gateways of the soul ”, “windows of the soul”, which may remind us of William Blake. The body is where meaning is articulated, where the outer space and the inner space of the body inhabited by the soul can meet. Therefore I will here explore the ways in which Antony Gormley manages to cast not only his body but also his soul in order to show the metaphysical dimension of the body.

Mots clés: contemporary art; sculpture; body; soul; air; representation; To see

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

Coralie Griffon. Casting the Soul: Antony Gormley's body cases.. Persisting Souls in Literature, Art, History, Politics and Philosophy, Apr 2019, Paris, France. ⟨halshs-03086000⟩