Neighbors of the Prince and Princess of Wales have installed 100 life-size cast iron statues resembling naked people in the grounds of their stately home.
The strange figures have recently been spotted on the lawn of the Marquis and Marchioness of Cholmondeley’s Houghton Hall.
The 6ft-tall figures, with metal genitalia on display, have been embedded in the ground as part of artist Sir Antony Gormley’s £22-a-ticket Time Horizon exhibition, Angel of the North.
“We have this wonderful park and it is ideal for sculpture,” explains Lord Cholmondeley, 63, also known as the filmmaker David Rocksavage.
Similar statues, said to resemble Sir Antony’s own naked body, have been displayed on Liverpool’s Crosby Beach. They had to be dug up from the sand in 2021 to replace the foundations after strong currents and shifting sand caused the statues to lean.
Neighbors of the Prince and Princess of Wales have installed 100 life-size cast iron statues resembling naked people in the grounds of their stately home.
The 6ft-tall figures with genitals on display have been embedded in the ground as part of artist Sir Antony Gormley’s Time Horizon exhibition, £22 a ticket, at the Angel of the North.
Lord Cholmondeley, whose wife Rose recently turned 40, admitted to feeling “a little apprehensive” about the sculptures (some of which are partially buried) that make up the work.
The sculptures, each weighing 620kg, are spread across 300 acres of land on the estate.
They are all installed at the same reference level: some are buried and others raised on concrete columns.
Gormley said his ambition for the program “is to get people wandering everywhere.”
“Art lately has privileged the object rather than the experience that objects can initiate,” he said.
‘Time Horizon is not an image, it is a field and you are in it. The work puts the experience of the subject/visitor/protagonist on equal footing with all material presences, organic and inorganic.
“The quality of light, the time of year, the state of the weather, and the condition of mind, body, and soul are all involved in this field, as is all the evidence it contains of human activity already performed, as well as the large number of life forms that surround the room.
The sculptures, each weighing 620kg, are spread across 300 acres of land on the estate.
The strange figures have been seen in the grounds in recent days of the Marquis and Marchioness of Cholmondeley’s Houghton Hall.
“We have this wonderful park and it is ideal for sculpture,” explains Lord Cholmondeley, 63, also known as filmmaker David Rocksavage (pictured).
The Prince and Princess of Wales’s Norfolk neighbors have had 100 life-size iron statues, which look like naked people, installed by artist Sir Antony Gormley, best known for the Angel of the North sculpture (pictured) in Gateshead .
Similar statues, said to resemble Sir Antony’s own naked body, are displayed on Liverpool’s Crosby Beach.
They had to be dug up from the sand in 2021 to replace the foundations after strong currents and shifting sand caused the statues to lean.
Sir Antony’s ‘Another Place’ installation on Crosby Beach attracts tens of thousands of visitors to this coastal attraction each year.
The statues stand upright on the beach and as the tide rises and falls, the figures become submerged in the ocean and corroded by the sea water.
The nude figures, facing the River Mersey estuary, caused considerable controversy when they were first installed.
Lord Cholmondeley said: “We are excited to have the opportunity to display this large-scale work by Antony Gormley for the first time in the UK.
“The 100 life-size sculptures will cover a much larger area than our previous exhibits, allowing visitors to experience more of the historic landscape surrounding the house.”
The ‘Time Horizon’ exhibition was first installed in Catanzaro, Italy, in 2006.
Sir Antony’s ‘Another Place’ installation on Crosby Beach attracts tens of thousands of visitors to this seaside attraction each year.
They were exhibited in July 2005 and work on their “renovation and maintenance plan” began in autumn 2019.
The statues stand upright on the beach and as the tide rises and falls, the figures become submerged in the ocean and corroded by the seawater.
The nude figures, which look out over the River Mersey estuary, caused considerable controversy when they were first installed, but in 2007 it was decided to retain them as a permanent attraction under the ownership of Sefton Council.
Many residents previously praised Sir Antony’s work as a welcome addition to the coastal town’s cultural attractions, but others were less complimentary.
In addition to saying they looked like oversized sex toys, others compared the piece to a “variety of giant dog droppings” or “giant rabbit droppings.”