Memes

Memes is a series of sculptures by British-sculptor Antony Gormley, recently exhibited at Anna Schwartz Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. According to the publication on the work released by Anna Schwartz in conjunction to the exhibition, Gormley states that the project started as an investigation into scale and modular construction.

Of the work, Anna Schwartz Gallery says:

A Meme is a cultural analogue to a gene. Forms that are transmitted in thought or behaviour from one body to another, responding to conditional environments, self-replicating and capable of mutation.

The miniature or the model allows the totality of a body to be seen at once. These small solid iron works use the formal language of architecture to replace anatomy and construct volumes to articulate a range of 32 body postures. The ambition is to make intelligible forms that form an abstract lexicon of body-posture but which nevertheless carry the invitation of empathy and the transmission of states of mind.

Displayed widely spaced within the architecture of Anna Schwartz Gallery in Melbourne, the works interface with the architecture of the gallery. Placed directly on the floor they become acupuncture points within the volume of the space, allowing the viewer to become conscious, through the disparity of scale, of his/her own mass and spatial displacement as s/he moves around and amongst the works.

  1. Sloan 8
    10.05.11 15:49

    I wouldn’t consider the work itself to be minimalist, only the presentation.

  2. Adrian
    11.05.11 04:28

    I think the work is minimalist in the sense that it utilises primary structures to create a model of the human form, and furthermore that each sculpture uses the same parts, but in different ways. If you restrict yourself to how ever many components and challenge yourself to create different forms with them, you are entering a very minimalist process, regardless of the results.

  3. Sloan 8
    11.05.11 17:26

    I’d call that cubism. Representing the body in ALL it’s permutations seems more maximal than minimal.

  4. Adrian
    12.05.11 06:12

    Ah, but cubism was primarily concerned with representing movement and different perspectives in a single image, whereas this is not. Sure, this could be more minimal, but it is no Ron Mueck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Mueck).
    I think this is a very minimal approach to conveying the enormity of human emotion.

  5. Fredrick
    12.05.11 09:24

    Thanks for taking the time to explain further, Adrian. It now makes sense to me!

  6. Adrian
    13.05.11 10:08

    Hey Fredrick, no problem, glad you found these additional comments helpful!

  7. Derek
    15.05.11 16:17

    lolololol! Nienth piciture is rip-open-hes-anus-guy!

    At least I think so.

    Seriously though, these are pretty interesting. I like the submissive/introverted ones.

  8. Sloan 8
    16.05.11 20:46

    Good points, Adrian. Thanks.