The Anthony Gormley exhibition at the Baltic is the subject of a high profile advertising campaign across the North East. Every carriage of the metro has a sticker telling you the dates where you can see the casts of 256 local .... Domain Field (left) complete, (above) in progress people otherwise known as Domain Field. The only things that are more widespread in the area are the banners supporting the Newcastle/Gateshead bid for the city of culture in 2008
The setting itself is pretty breathtaking, a remodelled flour mill with fantastic views of the river and cities - a fitting home for a new
••• commission from the man who designed the famous Angel of the North. The Baltic's funding is exceptional too - not only did they receive 100 per cent capital funding but 5 years revenue too, allowing major commissions like the Gormley but also a series of artists-in-residence. This also means the arts factory is currently free both in terms of general admission, special exhibitions and many of the workshops. But what happens when the current funding stream expires is less than clear. If the prices in the catering outlets are anything to go by, its not good news.
Despite the fact I'd heard Gormley talk on the radio and read the 8-page supplement in the Newcastle Journal, replete with pictures, I wasn't quite prepared for the reality of Domain Field.
From the fifth floor you can look down on the new Gormley piece, while on the fourth you can wander round between the figures. In this composition, each part has its own individuality, but the whole is really more than the sum.
I wouldn't have thought there were 286 ways to stand, but they all seemed different - the line of the shoulders, the set of the legs -and more ethereally the density of the rods... Some figures were enormously dense and complex, while others seemed rather insubstantial. Some hands were outstretched towards each other, as if wanting to touch, while others were self-containec in their own space.
Earlier you could watch the work actually