Men, everywhere.

I've been following Antony Gormley's work for a while now.  I've seen individual works of his at the Denver Art Museum and the Vancouver Art Gallery.  But I've never experienced one of his major public installations; the works that are his most notable.  At least until now.

Right now, at Madison Square Park in New York City you can experience Gormley's stunning installation, Event Horizon. This is Gormley's U.S. debut as a public art installation and it's fantastic.  As is usually the case with Gormley's work, this piece consists of multiple steel and fiberglass sculptures that are cast from the artist's own body.  Here they appear in various pathways and other areas of the park.   That would be cool enough but Gormley takes it to a new level installing the sculptures high atop the buildings surrounding the park.  The result is miraculous, somehow sending the hectic city life of Madison Square Park into slow motion. Viewing the work, I felt like time stopped. And that we all needed to take a moment and contemplate how epic each and every one of our tiny lives is.

This work is fascinating because the more you look, the more steel men you find, all of them looking down at you, or at least looking to the heroically to the future.  Then again, maybe it's something more sinister; when this work was being installed, a number of people called the authorities to report people preparing to jump to their deaths.

Event Horizon is on view through August 15. Here are a few photos.