It expresses as much anxiety as it does succour?

[moonlike]

Hi
In a text Antony Gormley is talking about one of his works of art, The Angel of the North. There he mentions that:
"You would expect a work of that scale to perhaps express some heroic ideal or anyway monumental certainty and it doesn't,-I think it expresses as much anxiety as it does succor".
Here, does he mean his sculpture is of no use regarding the culture and history of the country and also it makes people feel anxious rather that relaxed and calm?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Tdol]

I don't think he means it's no use. Most large public sculptures express some historical/heroic/national/regional idea, often a figure we're meant to admire. His work does not do this - it's not a historic figure, but a vast anonymous figure, so people might respond in different ways. What is the huge faceless angel doing there? Its purpose is less clear than a statue of a national hero that is meant to reassure us about our ability to resist threats, etc.


It says here that one aim is to serve as a focus for our evolving hopes and fears.

 

[BobK]

It also strikes me as a monument to lost industries.... But this view is dangerously near the political edge ;-)

b

 

[bhaisahab]

... But this view is dangerously near the political edge ;-)

b

I wouldn't say that. ;-)

 

[BobK]

Maybe not, but if we started discussing the reasons for that loss... ;-)

b