Antony Gormley has filled the Flatiron District with nude sculptures of himself, both in Madison Square Park and atop neighboring buildings (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Madison Square Park & surrounding area
23rd to 25th Sts. between Madison & Fifth Aves.
Through August 15
Admission: free
www.eventhorizonnewyork.org
event horizon slideshow
In fall 2007, British installation artist Antony Gormley made visitors seemingly disappear in his Chelsea exhibit “Blind Light” at the Sean Kelly Gallery. Now he has made himself appear all around the Flatiron District in his exciting, controversial “Event Horizon.” In a city where art can be found nearly everywhere one looks, now life-size sculptures of a nude Gormley can be seen nearly everywhere one looks in and around Madison Square Park. The Turner Prize winner has cast thirty-one “indexical copies” of himself, placing four (cast in iron and weighing fourteen hundred pounds each) at ground level and the other twenty-seven (cast in fiberglass and weighing a mere seventy pounds apiece) on buildings overlooking Madison Square Park, the farthest away standing on a lower level of the Empire State Building. Gormley refers to viewers as “silent witnesses” as they observe and seek out the sculptures, many walking around the park counting to see if they can spot each one. Although the project has resulted in some emergency 911 calls regarding potential suicide jumpers, it is primarily an engaging installation that encourages people to actually lift their heads out of their iPhones and BlackBerries and instead pay attention to the world they live in, noticing things that they usually just walk past without a second thought.