Antony Gromley and Coille Hooven are both sculptural artists who use depictions of the human form to explore the intimate connection between human experience and the physical body. They prompt audiences to critically engage with how they understand relationships between personal identity, life and corporeality in relation to their surroundings. PALE CAFE BRASSER CASE FOR YOU Figure 2: Antony Gormley "Another Time" Series Cast Iron Sculpture 191 × 59 × 36 cm. 1999-2013 Top Photograph: Bordeaux, France, 2017 by Oak Taylor-Smith Left Photograph: Delos, Greece, 2019 @ ALL ABOUT MYKONOS Right Photograph: Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University Of East Anglia, Norwich, England, 2017. by Andi Sapey Figure 1: Coille Hooven "Wounded Woman" Glazed Porcelain Sculpture 1986 Gormley is a British sculptural artist, whose work, at its core, tackles the innate relationship between the corporeal (physical) body and the nature of existence. Gormley's art and making process has largely been influenced by questions of the vastness of the human experience prompted by his exploration of other cultures and religions1. Another Time (1999-2013) is a series of cast-iron sculpture installations, presented in different locations all over the globe2. The iron 'bodyforms' are made from molds of his own body, critically imbuing the sculptures with a sense of personhood, his work acting as a metaphysical exploration of the link between the emotion of subjective experience and the tangible corporeality of our bodies3. The sculptures' unrefined seams, mold indents and physical composition reflect the industrial nature of their origin, forming an intrinsic tie to humanity, with its solid form physically displacing space 1 Brilliant Ideas, "The Body as a Found Object: Antony Gormley | Brilliant Ideas EP. 40" YouTube 2 Turner Contemporary, "Antony Gormley: Another Time" 3 Turner Contemporary, "Antony Gormley: Another Time"
around it. The form then rusts, bends and organically changes in response to the world around it, showing the inherently physical and temporal symbiosis of the self and body to our surroundings4. Gormley's placement of the forms is critical to the reading of the work5; their strategic placement amongst the natural, social and built environments prompts a reflexive introspection about where humanity belongs in respect to the natural world, where an individual fits within society, and how human nature is shaped by the conditions around it, fundamentally exploring what it feels like to be human67. Coille Hooven is a North-American artist whose body of work primarily reflects subjective experiences of femininity and womanhood, and the "struggles of being human"8 through delicate porcelain sculpture. Her artistic process focuses on her own inner thoughts and the corporeal process of working with "the Queen of all clays", infusing her pieces with deeply personal meaning9. In contrast to Gormley, who uses a more literal depiction of the human form, Hooven employs delicate, intricate, interpretive and symbolic depictions of the female body in her practice with porcelain to attach deeply intimate, nuanced emotion and narrative to her sculptures10. Hooven, like Gormley, explores the relationship between one's internal self, body and the world it exists in,