Antony Gormley’s Event Horizon

Antony Gormley’s Madison Square Park Conservancy public art exhibit, Event Horizon, ends on August 15th, so I was happy to have visited New York in time to see at least a few of the 31 sculptures cast from Gormley’s own body, which stand on the rooftops and streets surrounding the Flatiron District. Police have fielded more than a few calls from citizens concerned that the figures might be jumpers, and indeed, that was my first thought when I spotted the London version of his show in 2007. But according to Gormley in an interview with the New York Times, that’s the idea: “You could almost say the insertion of the sculpture is like the insertion of acupuncture needles within a collective body. And seeing how the body as a whole reacts to the presence of this irritation is very much the point.” I read about the exhibit back in March, but it had slipped my mind until I stumbled across a group of people smiling and taking photos of one of the sculptures on a sidewalk just outside the park. I scanned the skyline and was delighted to see two more perched on rooftops near the Empire State Building. There’s no place quite like New York City.

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